Filed under: Internet, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Podcasting, Blogging, Productivity, Web services, Commercial, Freeware
Feed reader bonanza - FeedDemon, Google Reader, Bloglines all update
by Jason Clarke Sep 29th 2006 at 12:35PM
Today's release of FeedDemon 2.1 beta seemed like a nice little treat. After the release of NewsGator Go! last week, it felt like a really solid one-two punch from NewsGator. Right on! But then as I'm using the new version of FeedDemon, I find updates notifying me of minor (but pretty wonderful from a usability perspective) updates to Bloglines, and the Google Reader update that David already walked us through. Holy cow! Since we already know what's up with Google Reader, let's go back and have a look at the updates to Bloglines and FeedDemon.
Bloglines
Bloglines have given a very nice overhaul to the feed list on the left hand side, adding some carefully done Ajaxy goodness, like yellow fades for unread count updates. There is also a subtle notification of the number of new unread items as you obsessively press the R hotkey to refresh your sidebar. Feed list updates occur more often. All in all Bloglines feels snappier than before, although that could just be the excitement of new features talking. FeedDemon
FeedDemon's update is also on the subtle but usable side, including a big security update to prevent malicious code inserted into an RSS feed from being executed. An additional feature has also been announced, which is called Popular Topics. FeedDemon can scour all of your subscriptions to see if there are any common threads linking them together. If so, it presents them in a custom view showing you items that are of enough interest that multiple people are talking about them. Be forewarned, though, you need to be subscribed to a fairly substantial number of feeds for this feature to be of much use. FeedDemon also feels a bit snappier, although no reference to specific performance updates were given in the release notes. If you're a FeedDemon user, I'd suggest getting involved in helping test the latest release. Nick's software is always so polished that even a beta version is very usable.
So what's the deal - everyone picked the same day to release new features? Although with the release of NewsGator Go! and the ability to take my feeds offline in my Pocket PC, I thought I'd finally settled on a platform, I now have more playing around to do with Bloglines (it's just more fun to use now), and Google Reader, the dark horse. The Google Reader update really came out of left field, but I can't wait to explore it since their first take at a feed reader was, well, weird. Looks like they've cleaned up their act.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
zack said 1:24PM on 9-29-2006
Hi,
The Bloglines update is OK, but two things are sorely broken in favor of "ajaxy goodness". First off, when refreshing the left panel, my entire browser becomes locked up. I have 100+ feeds to check on, so sometimes this takes a noticable while. Secondly, while using the 's' keyboard shortcut to navigate between unread feeds, if I get to the bottom of my feed list, and there are unread feeds near the top of the list, 's' no longer cycles back to the top like it did before this update. Grrrr. If it ain't broke don't break it!
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Karl said 1:30PM on 9-29-2006
I used to use SAGE as a newsreader plugin as it seemed to be the only software which could handle blogs which are password protected. After installing Firefox RC1 it doesn't work anymore.
Does any of this new RSS updates work with password protected feeds?
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Jason Clarke said 1:33PM on 9-29-2006
Hi Karl - FeedDemon definitely works with password protected feeds, but of course the downside for some people is that it's a commercial product. Personally, I think it's worth the money. Of course, I use the other feed readers too, so hey - maybe I'm not the best person to give advice on them... I can't seem to choose! :-)
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Karl said 2:38PM on 9-29-2006
Thank you, but I was indeed searching for a free solution...
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Toomas Toots said 3:16PM on 9-29-2006
Karl, if you are looking at free rss reader what supports password protected feeds (and even secure feeds) then you can also try out Feedreader from www.feedreader.com
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Ben Lowery said 4:37PM on 9-29-2006
Zach, the problem with the 's' key not wrapping should be fixed. I'd love to get in touch with you regarding the browser lockups, feel free to contact me at ben.lowery AT ask DOT com. Thanks.
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zack said 11:55AM on 9-30-2006
Ben, Thank you for the quick response. Both issues I was experiencing earlier today have been fixed. You guys have cemented my loyalty as a Bloglines addict. Thank you
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Nicole Simon said 12:03AM on 10-02-2006
Ah! Thanks. I thought bloglines was broken for not 'accepting' my choice of 'please mark this saved'. This has been one of the very big issues for me, as loading the tree does take roughly 10-30 seconds.
now if somebody could move the "make tree visible yes no" to the left side instead of directly next to the scrollbar, I might be quite happy (hitting that in about 40% of all tries to scroll the tree bar)
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Jason Clarke said 12:06AM on 10-02-2006
Hi Nicole - you're right, it's definitely in an awkward spot. I just use the 'm' hotkey to "maximize" the viewing area.
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