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Oct 3, 04:28 pm: Living with Google Reader

I dabble in RSS readers. I periodically download new ones and try them out — moving subscriptions from one to the other.

I’ve been using Google Reader for the last few weeks and now feel qualified to share some of the things I like and don’t like about it.

I use Google Reader in a pretty straightforward way. I have the subscribe button on my browser link bar (see the “Goodies” section under settings if you are a user) and subscribe as I surf. I have things set up to just display latest postings. So, I just space-bar through and read postings. Starring anything I want to read more. Then I sort by my starred items, and see if I want to bookmark or blog about something that I read. As I make the decision on a given item, I remove the star as a part of the action I take.

(I’m assuming that you have some familiarity with Google Reader. If you don’t, Google’s help is pretty helpful)

Pros:

  • Sorts subscriptions. Okay, it’s a stupidly basic tool but I need a variety of ways to sort my subscriptions. In Reader, it’s easy for me to tag subscriptions and then they are sorted by folders. It’s mixing the metaphor (hasn’t it always been tags vs. folders?) but it works for me.
  • Handles a lot of data. I have ~500 subscriptions which results in thousands of new items. It doesn’t choke on those.
  • Offline capacity. Almost any tool is useless to me if it doesn’t also give me a way to work offline. Okay, we can pretend the whole ubiquitous wifi thing but, especially if you aren’t forking out to connect, it isn’t ubiquitous yet. And I don’t want to manage subscriptions and tools across a variety of sites.
  • Stable. I haven’t had a problem connecting or using the site.
  • Keystroke enabled. I don’t like have to use the mouse on quick information tools (RSS readers and emails are both things I like to prowl through very quickly). Reader makes it easy for me to take actions — mark as read, star, unstar, tag — from the keyboard which is a key to speed.

Cons:

  • It isn’t fast enough. I like desktop applications. They are faster. They handle more faster. The good ones anyway. There I’ve said it. The Internet is a lot of beautiful things but when my goal is go through a big chunk of info quickly, the desktop is my friend.
  • No way to create smart feeds. I want to create searches of my feeds so that somethings can rise to the top of the pile and I want to do it inside of my primary tool. I can search but I can’t subscribe to that search in something like its own feeds.
  • I don’t really like the interface. I prefer Bloglines. I don’t have a good reason for this. It just is. Something about it makes me lose track of who I’m reading more than in other RSS readers. Does anyone else have this experience? Is there a way to describe it or is it just me?

What do you think? Do use Google Reader? How’s it working for you?

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Marnie Webb  | 

Comments made

  1. Jess Kutch

    I use Google Reader and love it. For the past few years, I tried several different readers, including Newsgator (blech) and Netvibes. I like Google Reader for the following reasons:
    1. It’s simple. RSS feeds of your subscriptions…and nothing else. The Netvibes default page is far too cluttered. Reading 40 or so feeds is hard enough without the latest USA Today articles appearing beside it.
    2. Trends. It’s useful to be able to see what feeds you read the most and what feeds you’re neglecting.
    3. Tags. I have just begun exploring the tag feature, but it looks promising.
    4. Interface. As a gmail user, I like the familiar user interface of Google Reader.


    Oct 22, 02:48 pm