RSS Readers, My New Found Love
By Alina Popescu on Mar 11, 2008 in Blogging Tips, WOBM & Blogging
As some of you already know, I decided to switch from blogrolls and bookmarks to a RSS reader to help me keep track of the blogs I read. The transition took a while, I have about 150 feeds in my Bloglines account, but I am overall happy with my choice. I even burned my own feed to make it easier for my readers to subscribe.
I also thought it was time I shared the pros and cons I discovered with you. These lists are however open and I’d like those of you dealing with feeds to add your own findings.
What I love
- I instantly see what blogs are updated
- Adding a new feed does not take longer than adding a bookmark
- If I don’t have time, I can still read everything I missed a little later without running the risk of forgetting who updated what.
- If I need certain posts for further reference, I can keep them new. This works better than bookmarks as I get to revisit them almost daily.
- I get special subscription ebooks
On the downside
- If Bloglines is down, I end up not reading important posts
- There are still quite a few blogs publishing small pieces of articles so the whole reason for using a reader is lost
- I tend to comment less
What thoughts and feelings has your RSS reader experience brought? Thanks for sharing!
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i think this is a pretty good overview of the pros and cons of a rss reader… i’ve started using bloglines a while ago but still need to implement it fully… it is indeed useful to see who’s been updating and who’s not been around for a while…
there’s still a lot of functions i need to discover, i’ve hardly taken the time to explore everything… i also need to compare this programme with google reader which i understand a lot of people are using nowadays…
keep well…
bart treuren | Mar 11, 2008 | Reply
Hi Bart, thanks for the feedback! Please let me know what you think of google reader. Given how many feeds I am already subscribed to, I would need some killer pros to decide to change habits
Alina Popescu | Mar 11, 2008 | Reply
Some killer pros to switch to Alertle (another rss feed reader):
- very simple interface and moves very fast. regarded as very easy to use.
- feeds represented by big desktop-like icons, easy to find.
- “autoplay” feature lets you navigate thru the items without any clicking or key pressing.
- keyboard shortcuts are very intuitive (up/down arrows)
Check it out at: http://www.alertle.com
(ps: you can switch from Bloglines to Alertle within a few mts using OPML. let me know if you need any help with that.)
Varun (I’m one of the geeks behind Alertle)
Varun Mathur | Mar 11, 2008 | Reply
Hi Varun, thank you for the information and for the offer to help
I checked Alertle and it looks like an interesting solution.
Alina Popescu | Mar 12, 2008 | Reply