The BEST RSS Reader showdown


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Those in the know have witnessed my frustration with Google Reader, with hundreds of feeds I have been struggling to burrow through all of that tastey RSS goodness.  The problem with Google Reader is that it just doesn’t work the way my mind works.  I want to read about certain things, filter by keyword, and scroll through hundreds of feeds like I scroll through email.  Google Reader just doesn’t cut it.  While its awesome that you can access your feeds anywhere it still doesn’t take the place of a software application that can sort all of that data in real time. 

I’ve witnessed Robert Scoble dig through over 600 feeds with Google Reader, even read up on how to better use Google Reader by Adam Pash it just hasn’t helped. However Scoble’s way of determining relevance to go through that many feeds is very applicable, I just don’t necessarily agree with his choice of RSS Reader.

My fellow friends at Blogcatalog turned me onto Bloglines, I used it for a half an hour and felt it better suited but still clunky. 

It wasn’t until I found NewsFire that I felt like there was light at the end of the tunnel.  I do quite a bit of writing for this blog and others on a PowerBook and its elegance really impressed.  The problem is I am a cross platform kind of guy.  I needed a RSS reader for my Windows based PC.  The search continued, and I learned that NewsGator bought NetNewsWire (thanks Stoneman).  I started using their new beta for a while I was still irritated by interface issues.  Newsgator seemed to get the feed experience close but adding RSS feeds took too long making Newsgator the online backup at best. 

After searching some more through a plethora of software and ajaxy sites I came across RSS Bandit.  RSS Bandit is a really powerful tool that seems very natural once you use it.  It fit well with my mutiple screen setup.  Once I found the RSS that interested me it was only a drag and drop of the RSS icon to pick up the RSS Subscription.  The data sorting really impressed me, searching almost like Google Reader should.  The most important part of RSS Bandit is the way it displays the RSS Feeds or shall I say the many different options it gives you.  You can sort your feeds by folder, keyword, and even author.  Almost as simple as email it will allow you to put the latest feeds from everyone on the top of the page so you are always looking at the newest feeds.  I was a little concerned with where the search mechanism was located.  Your first instinct is to use the search boxes at the top of the screen to filter your RSS feeds but those were web search entry boxes.  You do have one button to click to get to search but I can live with that.  When inactive RSS Bandit is minimized to the system tray and out of sight where you can schedule updates to your RSS feeds at your leisure.  It will notify you of keyword search and updates you specify on the hour if you would like with a help ballon.  On the task of keeping all of your RSS feeds accessible from anywhere RSS Bandit allows remote storage (although I have yet to test this feature).  It also allows you to change fonts, colors, and styles for just about any status one could think of.  It also lets you customize which browser (ie Firefox) you open your links with and can display web pages in its own special browser (probably IE based). 

RSS Bandit and NewsFire (on the Mac) just end up being the best weapon to defend against a sea of RSS feeds. Robert Scobes way of determining a RSS feed’s value does seem to make sense so I will adapt to his technique of RSS profiling.  All in all I feel I have cured the irritations that Google Reader created.  Keep in mind I am a Google fan and want them to come out swinging with a even better version of Google Reader, but for now my RSS static is now clear.

Check it out (NewsWire for Mac)
Check it out (RSS Bandit for PC)

Read more posts by Christopher Carey

July 3, 2007 | Filed Under General, RSS 

Comments

6 Responses to “The BEST RSS Reader showdown”

  1. Jake on MyAvatars 0.2 July 3rd, 2007 8:12 pm

    I read about 300 items a day with Google Reader and love it. However, I prefer to simply read through all of my feeds at once. That always works best for me. I love being able to thumb through everything with j/k/space and then hit s whenever I want to star everything. It just works best for me.

  2. RADAMS on MyAvatars 0.2 July 3rd, 2007 8:32 pm

    One more for your list Wise, here’s the link to Lifehacker.

    http://lifehacker.com/software/newsreader/organize-and-search-your-feeds-with-fastladder-274833.php

  3. Brian Heys on MyAvatars 0.2 July 4th, 2007 9:03 pm

    I wish it was possible to setup filters in RSS readers, so that you could subscribe to a feed, but filter out certain posts, depending on, say, the category, or keywords appearing in the post. For instance, I love reading Mashable! and TechCrunch, but am sick of reading about social networks and video sharing sites! How great would it be if I could exclude them from their feeds? :)

  4. Chris on MyAvatars 0.2 July 5th, 2007 2:27 pm

    I agree with your assessment of NNW — I just dont see why everyone raves about it. The interface is cluttered and just seems like it was rushed out the door. NewsFire, I think, has the interface nailed; I wish it was a bit more browser neutral — It can discover feeds in Safari, but not in any other browser. It has also not been updated in quite awhile, so its unclear how well supported it will be in the future.

  5. Jason Pearson on MyAvatars 0.2 November 15th, 2007 2:51 am

    Thank you for posting this great information on feeds. I myself haven’t taken the time to research this. Thank you for sharing your opinions and assesments with those of us who want to know more. Keep posting great stuff!

  6. Jack Kim on MyAvatars 0.2 January 25th, 2008 10:01 pm

    Saw this post several months ago, but just recently found my ideal new reader for my heavy use: DIFFBOT

    here’s the link: http://www.diffbot.com

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