Asa Dotzler: Firefox and more

I just switched from Bloglines to Google Reader. I'd been using Bloglines for a year or so - but I've not really tried the beta so I can't help there.

I will say though, they both export OPML fine, and GR imported the Bloglines export perfectly, so all the groups I'd set up in Bloglines were replicated in GR.

I like the way GR marks things read as you view them. My main complaint about the original Bloglines was that I'd click to view a group of stories, get called away and all of them would be marked read.

The currently annoying thing about GR is when you subscribe to an RSS feed it *always* offers you a choice between putting the feed into GR or into your personalised Google homepage, necessitating an extra click per subscription.

I also moved from Bloglines to Google Reader a while ago and I've returned to the Bloglines beta to see if it was improved enough to switch back. It's much better and works a lot like GR in some ways now but it's still not quite as good in my opinion basically because of its slightly busier interface. It adds some eye-candy that GR lacks (like feeds that slide upward when all items are read in the "show updated only" mode) so if you like a more modern "animated" inteface the Bloglines beta might be for you. As Auz noted, the way GR marks stories as read is superior to the original Bloglines but the beta fixes this and works the same as GR now.

The beta interface is a little slicker but I find GR to be slightly faster. GR also has a built in flash player for playing MP3 enclosures if that's important. The beta is also a little more customizable allowing you to choose a quick view, full view or three pane view.

Marking all stories as read requires an extra step in GR. I wish it had a dedicated button like the Bloglines beta or FeedDemon's panic button for those times I get behind and want to start from scratch but like I said it's just one extra click.

The Bloglines beta is so much better than the original that either would be a good choice IMHO.

You may also want to check out NewsGator Online Beta. I'm also looking for an online news aggregator and can't make up my mind. I like NewsGator, but it may be buggy (or it could be me). Google Reader, not very attractive. Bloglines has been slow for me.

I tried Bloglines briefly a few times. Always go back to Google Reader. I found I don't care about the rss client. I want to feel like it doesn't even exist. Google's come the closest thus far.

I gave up on offline clients. They don't poll when your computer is off (not good for often-updating feeds, or when your offline for a day or two), and don't stay in sync between computers. Google Reader does both.

Not to mention being able to search previously read posts rocks.

Well, given I just read this on Google Reader...

I have to pitch NewsGator, as it combines the best of both worlds: desktop client and web service. The web service does the polling, and keeps all your subscriptions and read states in sync across all your entry points. I use it with FeedDemon on Windows, you can use NetNewsWire on the Mac, and an iPhone application on the iPhone (duh!) and the iPod touch. Read an item at one place, it's marked read everywhere. Save interesting posts as "clippings", and they appear in NewsGator Online and the desktop clients.

The best thing about using FeedDemon with the NewsGator platform: the client only has to ping the service, and gets the new content from there - no need to contact dozens or hundreds of servers all over the place. And you have the power of a desktop client, like OS integration for search and mail, and customizability - which Google Reader lacks as far as I'm concerned...

Google Reader not support search (this is a very strange thing) but exist a Greasemonkey script to make searc (it is six month that I don't use Google Reader it is possible that search as been implemented).

The best feature of Bloglines is "future search", I have installed it like search plugin in Firefox:
http://www.bloglines.com/search?q=firefox&s=fr&pop=l&news=m&format=rss
and you can subscribe search as RSS feed.
Sandro

I have used BlogLines, and it was my RSS reader of choice, until I got into Google Reader. Why I switched? sometimes bloglines reseted the "read" marks. Then I got really accostumed the Google Reader and they never stoppded adding new things. Besides that, GR, has keys to read the feeds, that really makes me very productive in reading them. Just move forward and backward with a keystroke (J/K) for moving forward and backward. Then, if i want to move through the list of my feeds, instead of articles, just use Shift J/K, pretty straight forward, then press Shift-O to open it. Or even better, just press space, and move forward. when you run out of articles in the feed you are reading, pressing space moves to the next feed in the list. I frankly love it.

I have used BlogLines, and it was my RSS reader of choice, until I got into Google Reader. Why I switched? sometimes bloglines reseted the "read" marks. Then I got really accostumed the Google Reader and they never stoppded adding new things. Besides that, GR, has keys to read the feeds, that really makes me very productive in reading them. Just move forward and backward with a keystroke (J/K) for moving forward and backward. Then, if i want to move through the list of my feeds, instead of articles, just use Shift J/K, pretty straight forward, then press Shift-O to open it. Or even better, just press space, and move forward. when you run out of articles in the feed you are reading, pressing space moves to the next feed in the list. I frankly love it.

I have used BlogLines, and it was my RSS reader of choice, until I got into Google Reader. Why I switched? sometimes bloglines reseted the "read" marks. Then I got really accostumed the Google Reader and they never stoppded adding new things. Besides that, GR, has keys to read the feeds, that really makes me very productive in reading them. Just move forward and backward with a keystroke (J/K) for moving forward and backward. Then, if i want to move through the list of my feeds, instead of articles, just use Shift J/K, pretty straight forward, then press Shift-O to open it. Or even better, just press space, and move forward. when you run out of articles in the feed you are reading, pressing space moves to the next feed in the list. I frankly love it.

I have used BlogLines, and it was my RSS reader of choice, until I got into Google Reader. Why I switched? sometimes bloglines reseted the "read" marks. Then I got really accostumed the Google Reader and they never stoppded adding new things. Besides that, GR, has keys to read the feeds, that really makes me very productive in reading them. Just move forward and backward with a keystroke (J/K) for moving forward and backward. Then, if i want to move through the list of my feeds, instead of articles, just use Shift J/K, pretty straight forward, then press Shift-O to open it. Or even better, just press space, and move forward. when you run out of articles in the feed you are reading, pressing space moves to the next feed in the list. I frankly love it.

In Bloglines Beta shortcut (J/K) are been added, Bloglines has the three pane view (like TB style).
Also, the last Ask product is a very good news aggregator:
http://news.ask.com/news

I was a long-time Bloglines user and made the switch to Google Reader after a few data-loss issues I ran into using the former. I explained my initial thoughts here, but that this point I'm a die-hard Google Reader user. I've taken a look at the Bloglines Beta and in my opinion it's a joke. A messy joke. They're just trying to do too much, and I feel like you're actually better off with the original version if you're gonna use it.

The "all items marked as read" problem that others have alluded to is a real annoyance in Bloglines, and the "marked read as you read it" feature in Google Reader is a killer feature. I wish Google Reader didn't throw away any of your unread items that are over a month old, because I see that as somewhat of a data-loss problem as well, but it's not a big enough issue to make me jump ship.

Oh, and the answer to Auz's problem can be found here.

I'm looking forward to hearing what you think, Asa.

I use the Firefox 'SAGE' extension as a reader. It loads in the sidebar, which can be split with the upper half showing the feeds origin and bottom a the log line for each feed. I find Google's Reader unnecessarily busy, cluttered, sluggish and hard to organize. Worse, every time you import an OMPL file you're forced to manually delete all duplicate RSS addresses.

Probably a bit late to the discussion here, but I'll post anyway :) I'm a fully converted and loving it Bloglines Beta user.

@Luis Luis Borobia
Bloglines original and the Bloglines beta both have a whole set of keyboard shortcuts for moving through messages, and have had for a long time (possibly since before GR was launched).

One thing I discovered by accident, and love, about Bloglines Beta is that paging down a feed using space switches between actual page down and jumping to the start of the next article intelligently depending on how long they are.

@Nicholas Hassitt
I'm guessing you only ever read your feeds on one computer, and don't have a large number of feeds? I used to use Sage when I first got RSS, but with regularly using a PC at work, one at home, and two laptops, a web-based feed reader was the only way to keep it allin sync without a whole load of hassle. Also, as Sage (used to don't know if this has changed) only has the current contens of the site's RSS feed, and not old cached entries, unless you keep up with all your feeds all the time, Sage will 'lose' slightly older articles.