I love Google Reader

Started using Google Reader.. love it… still getting used to it…

Also started using Google documents as well (Writely and the spreadsheets)… while there is probably no impact on Microsoft immediately .. I am sure someone there is getting worried… whats your take?

Did you ever used Bloglines until now ? I used both (the G reader too).

I like Bloglines better, and I read about 100+ sources daily.

Cristian: I used to use NewsGator.

Bloglines = too much pointing and clicking and non-riverofnews.

As a long time Bloglines user I think that Google Reader has a lot going for it. Seems a bit clunky on my Mac but maybe Google hasn’t got up to speed with Safari and its cousins.

I do think Bloglines days are numbered unless they get their foot on the gas!

I’ve been a total Bloglines fanatic for a long time now. I used to just click the top level folder and read everything new using my scrollwheeel.

The first Google Reader was embarassingly bad, the new one is fantastic. I’ve been using it instead of Bloglines for two weeks now and the only two small problems are the delay whilst it loads up the next twenty posts (why isn’t it pre-loading?) and the fact that you can’t tag as you quick subscribe (Bloglines allows me to pick the folder during subscription).

Possibly their most impressive release since GMail.

Not sure yet if I’ll be going back to Bloglines.

I’ve been using Google Reader for a week now and it’s amazing. I can’t believe how much quicker it is to get through all my feeds when they’re available in a single-view, and then mark themselves as read as they scroll past! I switched from FeedDemon / NewsGator and I’d have a hard time going back.

The only downside is that I made the mistake of first trying it with Internet Explorer (6) since it wouldn’t work with Opera. The performance was pretty bad with frequent pauses, usually when it was trying to do something in the background. With Opera and Firefox the performance is vastly better.

A.

Another Bloglines -> Reader convert here. Bloglines may have a problem on their hands.

Reader’s mobile support is very different to Bloglines, but after getting used to the river-of-news style, I love Reader mobile.

I’ve been trying Google Reader out and it’s nice but has a few significant shortcomings.

1. There is no way of sharing your entire Reading List. Only induvidual items. Bloglines has the Public View which is most useful.

2. When adding a feed, you can’t tag or put it into a folder then. You need to do that later.

3. When renaming feeds, I can only rename one. After which it doesn’t seem to want to allow renaming of others till I reload the page. Dunno if that’s a FF specific problem.

I’ve been trying Google Reader out and it’s nice but has a few significant shortcomings.

1. There is no way of sharing your entire Reading List. Only induvidual items. Bloglines has the Public View which is most useful.

2. When adding a feed, you can’t tag or put it into a folder then. You need to do that later.

3. When renaming feeds, I can only rename one. After which it doesn’t seem to want to allow renaming of others till I reload the page. Dunno if that’s a FF specific problem.

Scroll wheel works perfectly for me in FF on Windows XP…

Also a NewsGator to Google Reader convert, though I still debate which allows me to get through posts faster. I’d like to see ability to sort all unread items by feed rather than time in a future rev. I browse a pretty wide range of tech blogs and switching context from post to post is more difficult than from blog to blog. Realize I can do this with folders if I select one blog at a time, but that requires alot of clicking.

Bangalore,

You can make any folder, or tags public. Go to settings->tags and you toggle whether they’re public/private.

Here’s my F1 feeds

http://www.google.com/reader/shared/user/07934286816399726135/label/formula-1

The new Google Reader is great. The first version blew chunks. I’m a couple of features away from dropping the RSS reader client apps I use on OS X and Windows.

Anyone else think Newsgator is in trouble? I no longer need their syncing between client apps because I get at my feeds from anywhere using Google Reader.

OK, I’ve tried Google Reader twice now before this post and I just couldn’t see what all the fuss was about.

Just tried it again and ding!

Looked more closely at the tagging options and ding! I can replicate my folders in NetNewsWire.

Very impressive – I’m sold

@ Andrew

Tried that out but it puts each folder on a seperate page. Bloglines displays it far better. With the folders on the left and the nested entries within. This isn’t so hot.

One other feature that’d be cool, bookmarking within a feed. Say you’ve scrolled down to the 156th post from a feed and then you decide to read another feed, there’s no easy way to go back to said 156th feed.

The only change I wish they’d make to the new reader is the ability to see the next and last entries in the screen. It works wonderfully when the post you are reading is less than the full size of the screen, but I wish they wouldn’t fill the screen with bigger posts. I loved the first version of the reader and had gotten used to being able to reader the posts on the left as I was scrolling. It let me skip posts that I wasn’t interested in much quicker. Now you can’t skim while having big posts open.

Another GREAT part of Google Reader is the module for the personalised home page. Works as RoN, or can show by label. Hovering over a post title pops up an AJAXy speech bubble with the content in it. One thing I am not sure about is whether this marks it as read in the main Reader.

Good stuff from Google – though I must admit to being a bit disappointed with the look of Docs/Writely. OK, so it’s all a corporate type theme now with Spreadsheet, Gmail and Calendar but it looks DULL. Writely was fun looking, and friendly.

… and then I can subscribe to your shared items in Google Reader!

FYI,
They improved it yet again, the left side panel will dissapear with a push of the u key and the space will advance the posts

I too converted from a premium NewsGator to Google Reader

Guy

P.S. If they would only do something for off line reading, this would be perfect.

Guy, I am sure they could do something more to integrate offline feed browsing within the desktop sidebar, say.

Is there any way I can share all my feeds automatically without having to go into each post?

/monkey

Bangalore,

Thanks for the comments and bug reports, and especially for tracking down the Rename bug. We will look into fixing it.

Mihai Parparita
Google Reader Engineer

you don’t even need to click on the things you want to share. “s” is the keyboard shortcut for starring; “shift+s” is the keyboard shortcut for sharing. no clicking, faster sharing!