The Recap:

• RSS? Why. ( evolution of the Net and why RSS is so popular )
• RSS? How. ( how to start using web-based RSS services )
• 1 Week Comparison. ( a look at 6 popular web-based RSS readers )

The Breakdown:

SearchFox -

• Pros: really fast now – with possibly the fastest OPML import i’ve seen. (ironically, you get a message saying it might take 5-10 minutes for all the feeds to show up, 50 or so in my case, but it took about 3 seconds), if adding a feed fails you get a useful link to validate the feed (also there’s a quick link to the actual website to check if it’s online), machine learning technology is really starting to warm up (stories are given a score based on your interests which saves me lots of time)
• Cons: no way to sort by date (sometimes you just want to see the most recent articles for a quick second) [see comments], accident prone one-click delete (individual sites and entire folder of feeds with no warning), “email” this post requires a configured email client like OutlookExpress (sort of works against the idea of being web based)

Rojo -

• Pros: rename feeds (you’re not stuck with default name for any feed you want to add), easily find info on the feeds you’re subscribed to (by clicking the “i” icon), advanced sort capabilities (sort by: feed tags, how frequently read, unread story count, and name), “email this” post (a feature i actually started using regularly)
• Cons: i can’t see what date each post was made (only vague 2 hours ago, 5 hours ago, etc.)[see comments], tagging stories and feeds can get tiresome (time consuming)

Bloglines -

• Pros: tabs help keep things organized (not by much), icons associated with feeds (left sidebar) help when trying to quickly find a site, “email this” post (same as Rojo), organize your favorite clipping into folders (on the fly), preview this feed (just before you add it)
• Cons: favorite clippings are displayed in the sidebar (instead of the main window), clicking on top-level directory in “My feeds” makes all new feeds appear as read (that sucks), “mark all as read” link is kind of useless (see previous con), export OPML feature is unintuitive (file opens in browser instead of downloading the file automatically – user must click “file”>”save as”) and is hard to find because it’s all the way at the bottom of the left sidebar.

Newsgator Online -

• Pros: favorite clippings are displayed in the main window (instead of the sidebar), convenient “email this” post feature (same as Rojo)
• Cons: can’t seem to find any info on each of the feeds i subscribe to (# of subscribers, Feed URL), no way to rename anything (folders or feeds), no way to mark “all posts” as read (only mark “this page” or “this post” as read), no icons associated with feeds (icon save time when trying to find stuff fast), had some css problems with collapsible feed descriptions using Firefox.

The Shakedown: (and why they lost out)

• Bloglines – while it is probably the easiest RSS reader service to get started on, things quickly get disorganized to the point of no return. The result was that i eventually just exported all my feeds as OPML and imported them into SearchFox and Rojo.
• Newsgator Online – is most likely my 3rd favorite service of those mentioned above. And although there aren’t any major problems to speak of, something about the main user-interface just turned me off. For some reason the whole layout just makes me feel like i have less control over everything. Also, the company as a whole seems a lot more corporate; it makes me wonder how dedicated they are to the free “online” version of their software.

Conclusions:

With 2 RSS readers remaining, SearchFox and Rojo stick out as my favorites (so far). Looks like it might take a little longer to decided on just 1 service but i’m not really in any rush to choose. In the meantime, i’ll continue to use both of them regularly and probably post some more of my observations. i might even come up with some sort of wishlist or “things i’d like to see” in new versions of SearchFox and Rojo so stay tuned.

[ This is a follow up to a previous article entitled:"1 week comparison: SearchFox, Feedster, Pluck, Bloglines, Rojo, and NewsGator", which is itself a follow up to an earlier post entitled: "So you think you can RSS? How", which is itself a follow up to an even earlier post entitled: "So you think you can RSS? Why". ]

i can’t believe an entire week has gone by..
i wanted to take a couple of hours each day to test out these 6 feed readers, but i gotta say that i still can’t decide which one i feel most comfortable with. looks like i may have seriously underestimated how easy it was going to be to make this choice. in the meantime, let me just say, that i have become a full blown feed junkie, thank you very much (not sure who to point the finger at on this one – but it’s got to be somebody’s fault right?).

anyway, here’s how i’ve been doing it and what i’ve found:

i started by logging in to each service, in 6 different Firefox tabs, all in a single browser. next i began to mess around, but trying to give each feed reader an equal amount of my attention. first i used the directories to browse for new feeds, and the search box to find sites with content i was interested in. then i took a look at the account features provided by each service. could i change my preferences.. did i even have any preferences? there were many things to explore. i did notice that Pluck and NewsGator kept logging me out if i hadn’t used them for more than 10 minutes or so. while this might be a very secure and efficient thing to do, the result was that i ended up spending a lot more time using all the other feed readers – who wants to have to keep logging in over and over again every ten minutes?

once i got bored of that, i tried to import an OPML file, which is essentially just a list of many different feeds all conveniently packed into one file. very useful for quickly moving around all your feeds (ie: import / export). suddenly i had a ton of feeds in my reader (80-120), and things got all cluttered. things were a mess, so i figured this might be a good time to test out how well each feed reader was able to manage large numbers of feeds. i deleted and renamed feeds and folders, reordering them in a way that was most useful to me. options like: display only unread articles, mark as read, and sort by date, are all particularly useful in these respects.

here are some more brief observations i have made over the course of the week:

SearchFox –
Pros: expand/collapse summaries within feeds (Results), easy to navigate/browse feeds (DirBro), sort by day/week/month/favs/all (Results), ability to mark article as unread (Manage), machine learning technology (SpecO)
Cons: slow to add feeds (Manage) [this seems much faster now], no OPML import [see comments] or export (Manage) [this feature was added: 10/21/05], no account preferences (AccSet) – but they’re still just in beta.

My Feedster -
Pros: add feeds really fast (Manage), import/export opml files and urls(Manage)
Cons: feed results page is difficult to view (Results), no way to sort page results (Results)

Pluck Online -
Pros: fast loading pages (Results), import opml files but not urls (Manage), open stories in new window (Results), add bookmarks as well as feeds (SpecO), view Shadow pages (SpecO)
Cons: can’t tell which articles are new or have been read (Manage), no export opml (Manage), weird reloading browser window if you try to do anything (DirBro)

Bloglines -
Pros: sort results differently for each folder/category (Results), expand/collapse feeds (Results), import opml files but not urls (Manage), export opml (Manage), keep articles as new even after they’ve been read (Manage)
Cons: no folder is created when importing new feeds (Manage), saving favorites is a 2-step process (ClipFav)

Rojo -
Pros: import/export opml (Manage), expand/collapse summaries within feeds (Results), many ways to sort (Results), easy one-click save/flag entries (ClipFav)
Cons: no easy way to rename categories (Manage)

NewsGator Online -
Pros: easily mark stories as read (Manage), choice to view only unread items (Results), the only service where you log in on a secure (https) server (SpecO), import/export opml files and urls (Manage)
Cons: can’t keep articles as new once they’ve been read (Manage)

Some of these feed readers have special features that would require more extensive testing in order for me to really say which i liked better. extras like tagging feeds (Rojo), favorites (Pluck), communities (Rojo,Pluck,Bloglines), machine learning (SearchFox), could easily sway my decision. the only service i am sure i would never stick with is Feedster. aside from being fast, i often had problems viewing feeds, organizing anything, uploading my logo/image, and sometimes it just wouldn’t work at all. if i had to pick my favorite 3 out of these 6 readers, i would have to say Rojo, Bloglines, and NewsGator. SearchFox could be up there as well, because of it’s ease of use. but since it is still in beta, and because i am forever intrigued with the idea of machine learning technology, i will keep SearchFox around for another 2 weeks. in that time, hopefully i can narrow these 3 services (actually 4) down to my #1 favorite. wish me luck.

[ This is a follow up to a previous article entitled: "So you think you can RSS? How", which is itself a follow up to an even earlier post entitled: "So you think you can RSS? Why", and looks at the evolution of the internet, why RSS and other feed formats are so popular today, how to use them, and why you might like one service over another. ]

Then suddenly, and without warning, the bubble just burst. A shadow of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) swept across the web like an angry storm. There were weeks, even months of confusion and darkness. Many people fell, others were just lost. When all the dust settled, there was only Google.

In the years that followed, we came to rely on Google to help us find the sites we were looking for, the information we needed. Google restored order to the web and led many people back on the path to reason, helping them to see the light. Google just worked, maybe too well, and in that time the web grew exponentially.

But before long, people had found more sites than they knew what to do with. Even favorites and bookmarks were becoming completely unmanageable. Although Google was a great search engine, it could not solve this new problem that was beginning to take form. Soon people started complaining that they were missing out on stuff they really liked, since it was impossible to visit all your favorite sites all the time.

Then something strange happened. The web went into syndication. Somehow, somewhere, someone said, “This is crazy. Let the web come to us”.

This represented a major shift as the emphasis was now on the user, their tastes, interests, and more. Sites that wanted to keep their visitors happy began to syndicate their content as simple web feeds. Users could subscribe to these feeds, and receive instant headlines from all their favorite places on the web without having to actually visit a single website.

As the idea grew to be more and more popular, several standards began to emerge. Today, it is not uncommon to see images, links, and icons for XML, RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0, ATOM, and RDF. Each of these feed formats provides the same function: they bring headlines to you, instead of the other way around.

Many new softwares were created to help manage all these feeds, and in the end, much time was saved by all. Some people are even going so far as to aggregate their feeds, which is the process of combining feeds from different sites to make a new and sometimes gigantic master feed. You could then group these by topic, instead of having many different feeds from different sites.

Lots of interesting things can be done with feeds like RSS, more and more websites are offering them, and new ways of reworking all this information are being developed every day. Hopefully this article has helped you begin to understand why.

[ If you enjoyed this article, be sure to check back for the follow up entitled: "So you think you can RSS? How." ]