Finally, an outstanding online RSS reader at Tom Raftery’s Social Media

I have had issues with Google Reader (Google’s online RSS/feed reader) in the past but in the latest update to Google Reader, released today most of those issues have been addressed.

Lots of people are posting opinions on this from Marshall Kirkpatrick on TechCrunch to Robert Scoble on Scobleizer to Richard McManus on the ReadWrite Web and all the reviews are effusive in their praise!

I’m not surprised. This time Google seem to have got it right. The old “Lens” look of the old Google Reader was, to my mind, sacrificing usability for looks. Now, you have a reader with a simple, fast interface not lacking in functionality. It even has a river of news option with an infinite scroll. And if you liked the old interface you can revert to that in the settings page too!

Added functionality includes the ability to create folders, bulk delete subscriptions, star, share, email and tag posts.

Several commentators have pointed to the continuing lack of integration with Google’s Blogsearch but personally with the dire state that is in, I think this is a good thing!

I have been slow to recommend online rss readers in the past but I think with the new Google Reader that has just changed.

4 Responses to “Finally, an outstanding online RSS reader”

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1 Marina making pictures
29/9/2006 at 11:51 am

Great news. I like the google reader very much.
I find it is very useful now. E-mailing posts is my favorite feature of this reader.

Thank you for sharing this story with me !
2 Donncha O Caoimh
29/9/2006 at 12:00 pm

I noticed that bloglines just updated their interface. It now has a nice AJAX update feature but it’s not as feature rich as Google reader, as described above! I’ll have to give it a go methinks.
3 Tom Raftery
29/9/2006 at 12:10 pm

No problem Marina

Don’t forget to try out the Import OPML option Donncha - get all your feeds in from Bloglines.
4 Lar Veale
3/10/2006 at 9:26 am

Hi Tom,

I love the new Google Reader interface, very intuitive, all the right features in all the right places. Some of the big issues I have with Google Reader are:

1) Subscribed feeds do not seem to be updated as often as Bloglines

2) It doesn’t recognise some URLS - try to add http://www.ireland.com in Bloglines and then try in Google. If RSS penetration is to increase, it needs to be a lot easier to add new feeds to a reader.

I’ve blogged about it myself on my blog