RSS readers

[Duggo]

Does anyone know of a good RSS Reader?

Thanks..

[castlecraver]

I use Google Reader, but primarily because I do a lot of bouncing from computer to computer and having my feeds centralized keeps things manageable and updated.

[jellywerker]

I like snownews, for linux.

[crankymoose]

I use Google Reader, but primarily because I do a lot of bouncing from computer to computer and having my feeds centralized keeps things manageable and updated.

+1

[Duggo]

A) I found on my computer Great News an RSS reader that I used to use. It's freeware. I guess it's ok.

For those of you who have an RSS reader, you know, there are 3 parts to it. The RSS Feeds, The headers, and The Articles. All of which, (in Great News, anyway,) are viewed in 3 separate panes.

What really gets me, is that when you click on ha header, it only presents a summery of the item. Then, if you want to read more, you click on the HTML link to read more. And where does that HTML link take you to? The web page.

Do all RSS Feeders work this way?

It's so counter intuitive. By clicking on the header, you are expressing an interest in reading the story. e.g. "B&B declared to be the best web site on the internet" That probably would get a click. So, the displaying of a summary of the article, is not necessary.

[rabidpotatochip]

A) I found on my computer Great News an RSS reader that I used to use. It's freeware. I guess it's ok.

For those of you who have an RSS reader, you know, there are 3 parts to it. The RSS Feeds, The headers, and The Articles. All of which, (in Great News, anyway,) are viewed in 3 separate panes.

What really gets me, is that when you click on ha header, it only presents a summery of the item. Then, if you want to read more, you click on the HTML link to read more. And where does that HTML link take you to? The web page.

Do all RSS Feeders work this way?

It's so counter intuitive. By clicking on the header, you are expressing an interest in reading the story. e.g. "B&B declared to be the best web site on the internet" That probably would get a click. So, the displaying of a summary of the article, is not necessary.

The short answer is yes, they do. The reason is that RSS is meant to be a really simple (that's the RS part ) way to let people decide your content is worth reading or has been recently updated without hammering the server. It was never meant to be a full-featured solution; think of it as SMS (text message) rather than an e-mail.

I'm going to come off as such a nerd but my home system runs Rnews, which aggregates all the feeds I like and lets me categorize them. Then at work I have an automatic SSH tunnel set up to patch me into my home network so I can check my feeds, schedule recordings with MythTV, etc.

[Duggo]

So, what makes one RSS reader better than another?

Thanks.

[bjrn]

Like any other application, it depends on what you want, need and like.

I like Google Reader. It's online, so I can reach it from wherever I am (as long as I have an internet connection). It can group/label stuff, and generally just works pretty well.

[ratcheer]

I also use Google Reader.

Tim

[rabidpotatochip]

So, what makes one RSS reader better than another?

Thanks.

Like any other application, it depends on what you want, need and like.

This is why I have my web server collecting feeds. It lets me access them from anywhere in the house/on the road while being able to format the information any way I like.

[Scruff McGruff]

Vienna and NetNewsWire are both great freeware RSS readers for Mac OS X. Vienna can refresh more quickly so it's the best if you like to keep on top of forum activity, but NetNewsWire downloads faster and has more features.

[Phog Allen]

Okay fellas. This is going to sound pretty dumb but I don't really know too much about RSS. I have something bookmarked for B&B and a number of other sites. I see this orange square with white lines in it on the address bar here and other places with an RSS feed. When I click on these it asks me if I want to subscribe and two or three options come up. "Bookmarks Toolbar Folder" is where I have them saved and this is available by clicking the "Bookmarks" button and scrolling down to said folder. Okay, fine. I am doing RSS I guess. Is what you are discussing here something different? At least in how you read the feeds? I was wondering since I haven't used this feature much(except for B&B) and thought there may be a better/easier way to do it. Say, something right on the taskbar? Sorry to sound so dumb. Thanks for the help.

Regards, Todd

[Garak]

I use Google Reader myself, but used NetNewsWire on the Mac before that.

NNW's Windows counterpart, FeedDemon, is apparently pretty good. If you don't want to use a web app like Google Reader all the time, FeedDemon is the way to go. It synchs with an online service called NewsGator, so things you read at work are marked read in FeedDemon when you get home.

[Garak]

Is what you are discussing here something different? At least in how you read the feeds?

Sorta. Google Reader has the best interface of any client if you ask me, so I'll use that as an explanation. You know those news tickers you see in Times Square? Imagine your own version of one of those, and you get to choose the content. Even better, there's a little summary of every article right after its headline. After you read the article, it disappears from the ticker, and new ones take its place.

If you've got a Google account, try it out. They have a couple of suggestions for content, so it's easy to get started.

[rabidpotatochip]

Okay fellas. This is going to sound pretty dumb but I don't really know too much about RSS. I have something bookmarked for B&B and a number of other sites. I see this orange square with white lines in it on the address bar here and other places with an RSS feed. When I click on these it asks me if I want to subscribe and two or three options come up. "Bookmarks Toolbar Folder" is where I have them saved and this is available by clicking the "Bookmarks" button and scrolling down to said folder. Okay, fine. I am doing RSS I guess. Is what you are discussing here something different? At least in how you read the feeds? I was wondering since I haven't used this feature much(except for B&B) and thought there may be a better/easier way to do it. Say, something right on the taskbar? Sorry to sound so dumb. Thanks for the help.

Regards, Todd

There are no stupid questions, only stupid answers.

Basically you use an RSS reader if you want/need certain functionality. Check out Taskable. It's pretty simple and sits in the taskbar, which is as I understand the functionality you're looking for.

[alb]

Google Reader is decent and worth a look; I used to use it prior to having some issues with their attitude after some privacy-related changes in late 2007.

I moved to NetNewsWire on the Mac (home machine) and FeedDemon on the PC (work machine). Both are fantastic, and they're as of about a month ago free.

[Randy]

I've never used a stand-alone reader. My reader is called Sage, and it works as a plug-in for Firefox - it works well on both Macs (at home) and PC's (at work). It's a snap to add new feeds (drag and drop or add bookmark) and it's quite customizable. The thing I like the most is that I can keep it open while I work in a browser.

- R

[Dennis]

Okay fellas. This is going to sound pretty dumb but I don't really know too much about RSS. I have something bookmarked for B&B and a number of other sites. I see this orange square with white lines in it on the address bar here and other places with an RSS feed. When I click on these it asks me if I want to subscribe and two or three options come up. "Bookmarks Toolbar Folder" is where I have them saved and this is available by clicking the "Bookmarks" button and scrolling down to said folder. Okay, fine. I am doing RSS I guess. Is what you are discussing here something different? At least in how you read the feeds? I was wondering since I haven't used this feature much(except for B&B) and thought there may be a better/easier way to do it. Say, something right on the taskbar? Sorry to sound so dumb. Thanks for the help.

Regards, Todd

Another +1 for Google Reader. Todd - this is how I use RSS/Google Reader. I have a number of websites that I like to keep track of and visit frequently. These are sites like boingboing.net, kottke,org, CNN.com, etc... Instead of me going to a bookmark and visiting the site, I have the RSS feed in Google Reader. Whenever boingboing posts an update to their website, the title and (most often) content of the entry is pushed to my RSS reader (Google Reader). I just keep Reader open all day and as updates happen at any of the 50ish website I used to surf, new entries pop up almost like I just got an e-mail. You can quickly browse Reader to see what is new, often the content of the story is completely within Reader so I don't have to leave it, but if only the title is present I just click on the title and it takes me to the webpage directly. It saves an incredible amount of time. This is how I know Shaveblog was updated last week without ever having to go there (not to open that can of worms... )

Dennis

EDIT: I should add that RSS works best for sites that post a regular update - news headlines, blogs, etc... RSS does not work that well for forums IMO.

[KUJO]

I've been very happy with Awasu. It has great functionality and is very easy to organize websites and displays

[letterk]

I've been using bloglines since just about day one. I've tried all the rest and keep coming back.