Started using Google Reader.. love it... still getting used to it...
Also started using Google documents as well (Writely and the spreadsheets)... while there is probably no impact on Microsoft immediately .. I am sure someone there is getting worried... whats your take?
Cristian Mezei
· 3 years ago
Did you ever used Bloglines until now ? I used both (the G reader too).
I like Bloglines better, and I read about 100+ sources daily.
Robert Scoble
· 3 years ago
Cristian: I used to use NewsGator.
Aaron B. Hockley
· 3 years ago
Bloglines = too much pointing and clicking and non-riverofnews.
TC
· 3 years ago
As a long time Bloglines user I think that Google Reader has a lot going for it. Seems a bit clunky on my Mac but maybe Google hasn't got up to speed with Safari and its cousins.
I do think Bloglines days are numbered unless they get their foot on the gas!
Conor O'Neill
· 3 years ago
I've been a total Bloglines fanatic for a long time now. I used to just click the top level folder and read everything new using my scrollwheeel.
The first Google Reader was embarassingly bad, the new one is fantastic. I've been using it instead of Bloglines for two weeks now and the only two small problems are the delay whilst it loads up the next twenty posts (why isn't it pre-loading?) and the fact that you can't tag as you quick subscribe (Bloglines allows me to pick the folder during subscription).
Possibly their most impressive release since GMail.
Not sure yet if I'll be going back to Bloglines.
Andrew
· 3 years ago
I've been using Google Reader for a week now and it's amazing. I can't believe how much quicker it is to get through all my feeds when they're available in a single-view, and then mark themselves as read as they scroll past! I switched from FeedDemon / NewsGator and I'd have a hard time going back.
The only downside is that I made the mistake of first trying it with Internet Explorer (6) since it wouldn't work with Opera. The performance was pretty bad with frequent pauses, usually when it was trying to do something in the background. With Opera and Firefox the performance is vastly better.
A.
gadgetophile
· 3 years ago
Another Bloglines -> Reader convert here. Bloglines may have a problem on their hands.
Reader's mobile support is very different to Bloglines, but after getting used to the river-of-news style, I love Reader mobile.
Bangalore Bytes
· 3 years ago
I've been trying Google Reader out and it's nice but has a few significant shortcomings.
1. There is no way of sharing your entire Reading List. Only induvidual items. Bloglines has the Public View which is most useful.
2. When adding a feed, you can't tag or put it into a folder then. You need to do that later.
3. When renaming feeds, I can only rename one. After which it doesn't seem to want to allow renaming of others till I reload the page. Dunno if that's a FF specific problem.
Tim
· 3 years ago
I tried Google Reader again (I normally use bloglines).
But the scroll wheel is broken in Firefox - just jiggles the whole page up or down a few pixels, rather than scrolling the content. So I gave up and went back to Bloglines.
If basic stuff like this doesn't work, it doesn't fill me with hope for the rest of the software's features.
gadgetophile
· 3 years ago
Scroll wheel works perfectly for me in FF on Windows XP...
Hans
· 3 years ago
Also a NewsGator to Google Reader convert, though I still debate which allows me to get through posts faster. I'd like to see ability to sort all unread items by feed rather than time in a future rev. I browse a pretty wide range of tech blogs and switching context from post to post is more difficult than from blog to blog. Realize I can do this with folders if I select one blog at a time, but that requires alot of clicking.
Andrew
· 3 years ago
Bangalore,
You can make any folder, or tags public. Go to settings->tags and you toggle whether they're public/private.
The new Google Reader is great. The first version blew chunks. I'm a couple of features away from dropping the RSS reader client apps I use on OS X and Windows.
Anyone else think Newsgator is in trouble? I no longer need their syncing between client apps because I get at my feeds from anywhere using Google Reader.
Don
· 3 years ago
OK, I've tried Google Reader twice now before this post and I just couldn't see what all the fuss was about.
Just tried it again and ding!
Looked more closely at the tagging options and ding! I can replicate my folders in NetNewsWire.
Very impressive - I'm sold :-)
Bangalore Bytes
· 3 years ago
@ Andrew
Tried that out but it puts each folder on a seperate page. Bloglines displays it far better. With the folders on the left and the nested entries within. This isn't so hot.
One other feature that'd be cool, bookmarking within a feed. Say you've scrolled down to the 156th post from a feed and then you decide to read another feed, there's no easy way to go back to said 156th feed.
Brent Castle
· 3 years ago
The only change I wish they'd make to the new reader is the ability to see the next and last entries in the screen. It works wonderfully when the post you are reading is less than the full size of the screen, but I wish they wouldn't fill the screen with bigger posts. I loved the first version of the reader and had gotten used to being able to reader the posts on the left as I was scrolling. It let me skip posts that I wasn't interested in much quicker. Now you can't skim while having big posts open.
Dave
· 3 years ago
Another GREAT part of Google Reader is the module for the personalised home page. Works as RoN, or can show by label. Hovering over a post title pops up an AJAXy speech bubble with the content in it. One thing I am not sure about is whether this marks it as read in the main Reader.
Good stuff from Google - though I must admit to being a bit disappointed with the look of Docs/Writely. OK, so it's all a corporate type theme now with Spreadsheet, Gmail and Calendar but it looks DULL. Writely was fun looking, and friendly.
Mike Wills
· 3 years ago
... and then I can subscribe to your shared items in Google Reader!
Guy Pelletier
· 3 years ago
FYI, They improved it yet again, the left side panel will dissapear with a push of the u key and the space will advance the posts
I too converted from a premium NewsGator to Google Reader
Guy
P.S. If they would only do something for off line reading, this would be perfect.
Dave
· 3 years ago
Guy, I am sure they could do something more to integrate offline feed browsing within the desktop sidebar, say.
monkeyleader
· 3 years ago
Is there any way I can share all my feeds automatically without having to go into each post?
/monkey
Mihai Parparita
· 3 years ago
Bangalore,
Thanks for the comments and bug reports, and especially for tracking down the Rename bug. We will look into fixing it.
Mihai Parparita Google Reader Engineer
sippey
· 3 years ago
you don't even need to click on the things you want to share. "s" is the keyboard shortcut for starring; "shift+s" is the keyboard shortcut for sharing. no clicking, faster sharing!
George Luft
· 3 years ago
The new Google Reader is great. I've added a bunch of new subscriptions lately. I have been starring like mad with the intention of going back and re-reading these gems--yeah right. I think I'll have to get into the habit of sharing instead. Shift-S is a handy shortcut.
Brian Broom
· 3 years ago
I'm getting fairly annoyed with the Google Reader. When I go through the posts, it is correctly flagging items as read, but then when I hit refresh (r), it marks them unread again.
This is in the show all items view, with only new items displayed. I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong or what.
Bangalore Bytes
· 3 years ago
@ Mihai
Thanky!
P.S. I've been accessing it via my mobile as well, http://reader.google.com/view/m, and the river of news style rocks. Especially if you have nothing to do, a few hours to kill and want some brain candy.
Rajesh Barnwal
· 3 years ago
For quite some time I wanted to migrate to Google Reader but couldn't find a way how to export all of my feeds in one go from Bloglines. Thanks to this post, I have successfully imported my feeds into Google Reader and have started reading them on this platform. The one good thing that I really liked about Google Reader was the fact that I could easily rename a particular blog under its writer's name. I couldn't do that in Bloglines. I don't know if it's the right time to say goodbye to Bloglines, but I am on the way...
mika
· 3 years ago
Awesome! Thanks for sharing your read items!
If only more bloggers did that. And you would aggregate that. Would be way cooler than digg.
All Comments
Also started using Google documents as well (Writely and the spreadsheets)... while there is probably no impact on Microsoft immediately .. I am sure someone there is getting worried... whats your take?
I like Bloglines better, and I read about 100+ sources daily.
I do think Bloglines days are numbered unless they get their foot on the gas!
The first Google Reader was embarassingly bad, the new one is fantastic. I've been using it instead of Bloglines for two weeks now and the only two small problems are the delay whilst it loads up the next twenty posts (why isn't it pre-loading?) and the fact that you can't tag as you quick subscribe (Bloglines allows me to pick the folder during subscription).
Possibly their most impressive release since GMail.
Not sure yet if I'll be going back to Bloglines.
The only downside is that I made the mistake of first trying it with Internet Explorer (6) since it wouldn't work with Opera. The performance was pretty bad with frequent pauses, usually when it was trying to do something in the background. With Opera and Firefox the performance is vastly better.
A.
Reader's mobile support is very different to Bloglines, but after getting used to the river-of-news style, I love Reader mobile.
1. There is no way of sharing your entire Reading List. Only induvidual items. Bloglines has the Public View which is most useful.
2. When adding a feed, you can't tag or put it into a folder then. You need to do that later.
3. When renaming feeds, I can only rename one. After which it doesn't seem to want to allow renaming of others till I reload the page. Dunno if that's a FF specific problem.
But the scroll wheel is broken in Firefox - just jiggles the whole page up or down a few pixels, rather than scrolling the content. So I gave up and went back to Bloglines.
If basic stuff like this doesn't work, it doesn't fill me with hope for the rest of the software's features.
You can make any folder, or tags public. Go to settings->tags and you toggle whether they're public/private.
Here's my F1 feeds :)
http://www.google.com/reader/shared/user/079342...
Anyone else think Newsgator is in trouble? I no longer need their syncing between client apps because I get at my feeds from anywhere using Google Reader.
Just tried it again and ding!
Looked more closely at the tagging options and ding! I can replicate my folders in NetNewsWire.
Very impressive - I'm sold :-)
Tried that out but it puts each folder on a seperate page. Bloglines displays it far better. With the folders on the left and the nested entries within. This isn't so hot.
One other feature that'd be cool, bookmarking within a feed. Say you've scrolled down to the 156th post from a feed and then you decide to read another feed, there's no easy way to go back to said 156th feed.
Good stuff from Google - though I must admit to being a bit disappointed with the look of Docs/Writely. OK, so it's all a corporate type theme now with Spreadsheet, Gmail and Calendar but it looks DULL. Writely was fun looking, and friendly.
They improved it yet again, the left side panel will dissapear with a push of the u key and the space will advance the posts
I too converted from a premium NewsGator to Google Reader
Guy
P.S. If they would only do something for off line reading, this would be perfect.
/monkey
Thanks for the comments and bug reports, and especially for tracking down the Rename bug. We will look into fixing it.
Mihai Parparita
Google Reader Engineer
This is in the show all items view, with only new items displayed. I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong or what.
Thanky!
P.S. I've been accessing it via my mobile as well, http://reader.google.com/view/m, and the river of news style rocks. Especially if you have nothing to do, a few hours to kill and want some brain candy.
Thanks to this post, I have successfully imported my feeds into Google Reader and have started reading them on this platform.
The one good thing that I really liked about Google Reader was the fact that I could easily rename a particular blog under its writer's name. I couldn't do that in Bloglines.
I don't know if it's the right time to say goodbye to Bloglines, but I am on the way...
If only more bloggers did that. And you would aggregate that. Would be way cooler than digg.