Well, it turns out that my stint with Google Reader only lasted a couple of months this time. I liked the fact that it was integrated with my other Google services, but the whole time it felt like I was making too many compromises... mostly because I couldn't see the actual post times of items and I couldn't see when items were updated.
It seems like Google Reader is a great solution for somebody who skims lots of RSS, but it just won't cut the mustard for somebody like me who follows all the content in a carefully selected list of feeds. Back to Bloglines I go... and the beta version of that service is getting pretty slick by now, too.
βloglines (Beta)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-
The Geek Code desperately needs updating, but in any case here's mine (as of 2010-02-28):
-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.12
GIT/MU d+(-) s:+>: a C++> ULXB++++$ L+++ M++ w--() !O !V P+ E---
W+++ N o++ K? PS PE++ Y+ PGP t !5 X- R- tv+@ b++ DI++++ D--- e*++
h--- r+++ y+++ G+
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------
If you really care about knowing what that all means, you either know the code already, or you can get it decoded for you here.
3 comments:
I remember Bloglines from way back when. When RSS was a new way of getting news online. They're a great service, but they're nowhere near what Google Reader can do - especially their mobile page.
But if its not your cup of tea, then so be it. Hope it all works out well for you... :)
Well, I don't use the Web on a mobile device, so maybe things will change when I do. However, Bloglines has a mobile interface as well that might meet my needs if I do get an Internet device.
In any case, Blogger's new beta is great; the interface is much like that of GReader. However, I never really got into that "river of news" thing on Google; I like it that my feeds are separated rather than folded together into one stream. Especially since Google can never seem to put the actual post time on items and just uses whatever time it was when they looked at the feed. That sucks particularly in active feeds, where you end up getting "clumps" of posts all labeled with the exact same time.
I see what you're saying about the time-stamp thing. Not really a huge issue, but if it doesn't work for you, then so be it.
However, you can separate the feeds into any number of tags that you want. I don't understand the confusion about the "giant clump" I guess...
Since I had a bloglines account from way back when, I tried it again to see if it worked better for RSS than Google's. The interface on the mobile device was just way too slow for typical use. Especially on the iPhone where we're stuck with the retardo slow edge connection. Their service just isn't feasible for it.
Having tried almost every option for reading news there is, I keep coming back to Google. Their service is just unbeatable every way you look at it.
Oh, except for how they use Atom as their shared news feed. Doesn't play well with Wordpress... :(
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