Popular Windows RSS reader FeedDemon has hit version 3.0, and the latest version includes a number of new and tweaked features. This summer the team behind the RSS reader announced they would be shutting down the NewsGator web-based RSS reader. Instead, FeedDemon now synchronizes with Google Reader. That means you can read through your subscriptions in either Google Reader or FeedDemon and your read, unread, and starred items will be reflected in both RSS readers.

FeedDemon 3.0 also has a new user interface with a subscription home page with popular articles and videos from your feeds, tagging and tag clouds on the subscriptions home page, and enhanced Twitter support for sharing links through Twitter and reading RSS feeds of Twitter users you follow.

Another cool feature is the ability to subscribe to feeds for search terms. Just select the New Subscription option under the File menu and enter a keyword or search term. The next window will ask you to choose from a list of sites to search including Google News, Google Blog Search, Flickr, Techmeme or Twitter. Or you can find existing feeds that match your search terms.

FeedDemon is available as a free ad-supported download. As you can see in the screenshot, the ads are relatively unobtrusive and hang out in the bottom left corner. You can also buy a license for FeedDemon for $10 to make the ads go away.

[via Digital Inspiration]

Google Reader is great for keeping up with your favorite news feeds, but when it comes to reading blog comments, it doesn't really deliver. GReactions is a Firefox extension that fills the gap. It collects comments from the blog post itself, FriendFeed, Twitter, Digg, Hacker News, Reddit and more. You can access all of this by clicking a link that GReactions adds to the end of each post in Reader.

Don't confuse GReactions with comments on shared Google Reader items. It doesn't allow you to comment, it just pulls in comments from other sources. I'm not sure how reliable GReactions is, though, because it mostly displayed Twitter mentions for the posts I checked out. It could be that Twitter is just quicker to index than some of the other sources, though, and not every post gets added to Dugg or Reddited. Your mileage may vary with GReactions, but it definitely deals well with high-traffic, comment-heavy blogs.

[via Webware]

A few days ago we let you know that NewsGator was planning to shut down its once-popular web-based RSS reader. But it looks like the NewsGator web client isn't the only product on the chopping block. The company is also killing off NewsGator Go! and NewsGator Inbox.

NewsGator Inbox is an application that works with Microsoft Outlook to let you read and manage your feeds from the email client. NewGator Go! is a mobile application for BlakBerry and Windows Mobile phones and PDAs, as well as other Java-enabled smartphones.

NewsGator will be launching a new iPhone app soon, but for Windows Mobile and BlackBerry users, the company has this bit of advice: Find a new application that syncs with Google Reader. The company's existing products like the FeedDemon and NetNewsWire desktop RSS readers will be able to synchronize your feeds and read/unread items with Google Reader. It looks like the company decided to retired Inbox and Go! rather than build the same functionality into those apps.

How do you get your news on the go? Do you use a mobile RSS reader for BlackBerry or Windows Mobile? Or do you just use the mobile web interface for Google Reader? Let us know in the comments.

[via The::Unwired]

It's sad to see NewsGator go, especially if you hate using Google Reader. On the other hand, it seems pretty obvious that Google Reader's userbase is huge, and this move gives NetNewsWire and FeedDemon a chance to pick up some of those users for themselves. Personally, I never used Google Reader because I couldn't sync NetNewsWire with it, and, and if I'm not alone, Google might get a few new users out of the deal, too.

[via ReadWriteWeb]

Google had launched an official Google Reader gadget for Google Desktop. Basically this utility lets you read RSS feeds from Google Reader without opening a web browser. The interface is similar the web version, with all of your feeds and categories presented in a list.

When you click on an individual feed (or "all items" or a label", you'll see a list of headlines and a first sentence or two. Clicking on the headline will bring up a new window with the more text. Full HTML feeds don't render properly, so if you want to read a complete blog post, news item, or view images or pictures you'll want to click through to open the page in a web browser. But if you just want to quickly scan the latest news, the Google Reader gadget should work.

The gadget works with Google Desktop 5 for Windows and Linux.

[via Official Google Reader Blog]

Google Reader has added a new feature that makes reading RSS feeds a more social experience: You can leave comments on other users' shared items. In other words, if your friend clicks the share button next to a blog post or news item in Google Reader, it will show up in your Friends' shared items section along with any comment they've left. Now you can also comment on their comment. If multiple friends have shared the same item, you'll see multiple conversations.

All told, the feature looks and feels a lot like FriendFeed. But there's one major difference: Google Reader displays the full text of any articles that make their full length items available via RSS. So if your'e someone who only clicks through to articles you've read in your RSS reader to see what comments other people have left, this new feature could keep you from ever clicking through to the original web site. And that might be fine for you, the reader. But web publishers who rely on advertising might not be nearly as happy about this development.

Right now Google doesn't import comments from blogs, so there's still original content on the original web site. But there's also currently no way for blogs or other web sites to import comments from Google Reader, as they can from FriendFeed. That may change in the future.

What do you think? Are you likely to use the new commenting system? Would you rather use FriendFeed? Or do you just visit web sites when you want to read and participate in the comments?

[via The Inquisitr]

If you've ever wished you could scroll through your Twitter messages and star your favorites for reference as if you were using Google Reader, then TwitteReader might be for you. This web app is basically a Google Reader clone, except instead of managing general RSS feeds, it manages your Twitter account.

When you type in your username and password, you'll see a list of the latest tweets from the people you follow on Twitter. You can scroll through messages using the familiar j/k shortcuts and you can refresh the list by hitting "r." You can star items, and post replies to any message directly from the reader.

You could accomplish something quite similar by taking an RSS feed from Twitter and adding it to Google Reader. But then you wouldn't be able to reply to messages. TwitteReader is licensed under a GNU license, and the developer has provided tools that let you run it yourself from any web server.

[via WebWare]

The developer behind the popular FeedDemon RSS reader for Windows has dropped a hint that the next version of the program will support synchronization with Google Reader. In other words, you can link your desktop RSS reader with the Google Reader web based RSS reader and when you mark items as read or starred in one client, they'll be synchronized with the other.

The new build with Google Reader support isn't publicly available yet, but developer Nick Bradbury posted a link to a Flickr image of the next version of FeedDemon yesterday. Google Reader integration isn't the only new feature in store for FeedDemon 2.8. The currently available release candidate already includes enhanced support for Twitter feeds.

If you can't wait for FeedDemon 2.8 RC3, you can try RSS Bandit, which already allows users to synchronize their feeds with Google Reader.

[via Digital Inspiration]

A few weeks ago Google updated Gmail to allow users to choose colorful themes for their email service. The move left some of us wondering when Google Reader was going to get a similar facelift. Apparently today is the day, but the change isn't exactly what I had expected.

Google has rolled out a new look for its RSS reader. There's a lot more white space, and a lot less blue. But there's no way to customize the color scheme.

Probably the best part of the new design is that you can collapse different sections in your sidebar to save space. Don't care what items your friends have shared? Just select the "hide unread counts" button. Hate the fact that every time you log into your account you're greeted with a reminder that you have over 1000 unread items to catch up on? You can collapse that section too.

I happened to have Google Reader open when the changeover occurred, so I was able to grab the screenshot above showing the old new design on the left and the old Google Reader interface on the left. Honestly, found the old version familiar and comforting like a favorite blanket. But I'm sure I'll get used to the new version soon. Getting rid of that 1000+ unread item count will certainly help.

thanks Stuart!

Google Reader, Bloglines and other RSS readers make it easy to keep on top of the latest news from dozens, or even hundreds of web pages without actually visiting those pages. But if you want to read a web site that constantly covers news you're interested in, and just happens to be in a language you don't speak, in the past you've needed to exit your RSS reader and load the page in Google Translate or Windows Live Translate or a similar service.

Or you could use a service like Mloovi to translate the RSS feed, but Mloovi has a few limitations, like the inability to show pictures or full feeds. Now it looks like Google is taking things into its own hands, by combining Google Reader with Google Translate.

Here's how it works. Just subscribe to a blog or news site in another language (assuming you can find the subscribe button). Then go to the feed settings in Google Reader and select "Translate into my language." That's it. You only have to do this once per feed and Google Reader will automatically translate that page until you tell it to stop.

Keep in mind, these are machine-generated translations, so they're far from perfect. But if you don't have time to learn French just to read a few articles from Le Monde from time to time, this could be the next best thing. Or maybe the thing after that.

Some of the applications I use most often aren't desktop apps, they're web apps that I access through a web browser. Gmail, Google Reader, and Google Docs, for example. GMDesk is an Adobe AIR-based client for these and other Google-based services. It's based on the idea that you shouldn't have to fire up a web browser just to check your email.

The concept is sound, but the execution leaves a bit to be desired. We've seen other attempts at taking web apps away from the browser. Bubbles and Mozilla Prism are two examples. But as with those programs, GMDesk just doesn't seem to offer much functionality that you couldn't get from a browser. What's more, while Prism and Bubbles offer stripped-down browser-style windows that tend to be a little lighter on your computer's RAM usage than Firefox or Internet Explorer, GMDesk eats 100+ MB of RAM as soon as you launch it.

There are two other factors that make GMDesk a bit limiting. First, the fonts in Gmail are kind of small and awkward to read. And second, you can only have one window open at a time. So if you like to keep both Gmail and Google Reader open throughout the day, you're going to want to fire up a web browser.

That isn't to say that GMDesk is useless. If the developer can reduce the RAM usage, and/or allow you to open multiple windows or multiple tabs, it would be nice for Gmail addicts to keep a window open all day while resisting the temptation to do some web surfing when they should be working.

[via CyberNet]

At first glance, the latest version of RSS Bandit looks just like pretty much every other desktop RSS reader for Windows. In other words, it looks like Outlook. But this week saw the released of RSS Bandit 1.7 Alpha with one killer new feature: support for synchronization with your Google Reader or NewsGator feeds.

Here's how it works. You download and install the open source application, and then click the File menu and select Synchronize Feeds. Pick your service and enter your login information and RSS Bandit will import your feed list in a matter of seconds. Any actions you take using the desktop reader should then be reflected at your online feed reader. You can mark items as reader, unread, or shared. And you can subscribe to feeds or remove feeds using RSS Bandit and the changes should apply to your online account.

At least that's the theory. In practice, we're still waiting for our changes to show up in Google Reader. We read a few items, unsubscribed from a feed, and over an hour later Google Reader is showing no sign that it's noticed. This is still Alpha software, so it's possible speedier updates could come at a later date.

RSS Bandit 1.7 Alpha also adds a new podcast download manager.

[via Digital Inspiration]

It's been a while since we've seen a compelling new browser start page. There was a real flurry of start pages a year or two ago when the likes of Google Personalized Start Page (now iGoogle), NetVibes, Pageflakes, and a myriad of other copycat sites launched. Strangely, even with such an amazing variety of start pages to choose from, we've never found any of them to be particularly compelling.

Then we were introduced to Feedly. Feedly is a start page that only works in Firefox, because it requires a Firefox browser extension to run. It's actually a locally hosted page that goes out and grabs information feed reader sites and social networks that you use, and presents it to you in a friendly magazine style layout.

Feedly can go through your Firefox bookmarks, as well as your My Yahoo! page, NetVibes, Bloglines, Twitter, FriendFeed, Yahoo! Mail, and Gmail accounts to find relevant information to present to you. If we can offer one tip, it would be to choose carefully. When setting up our page, we checked every possible option, and ended up with far too many feeds, and too many feeds that we had lost interest in that were still in some account somewhere that Feedly found.

Feedly also has a very tight integration with Google Reader, and anything that you read in Feedly will be marked as read in Google Reader, and vice versa. This is cool, but it's also dangerous, since and feeds that you add to Feedly (or that it finds) are automatically added to your Google Reader account. So again, choose carefully what feeds you want to be seeing in Feedly, as they will affect your Google Reader account.

But once it's all set up, Feedly is a very useful and elegantly done start page - so much so, that we haven't been compelled to remove it. And since no other start page has captured our interest, that's certainly something.