Corvida, Thanks for the YackTrack mention! I am glad that you still use it and promote it. Personally, I do not think that your feed reader is the problem. I believe the content may be the problem. Whenever something interesting happens, you get several copies of the same story. Just look at the new Yahoo CEO story. Everyone seems to be covering it and some sites put out multiple stories. You just can't be interested in that much about one announcement.
smilbandit
· 11 months ago
I hated getting several copies of the same post across blogs especially because it was pretty much the same article. It'd be nice if feed readers got some techmeme like linking. That way you could set an entire linked set as read.
Corvida Raven
· 11 months ago
The copycat content is definitely a huge factor. I wish all those stories could be conglomerated under one heading with a general overview of each story. Now that would be a time saver.
@cflinnds
· 11 months ago
If you're on a Mac, I'd highly recommend you use NetNewsWire.
I've tried GoogleReader and haven't revisited. Too plain jane.
Corvida Raven
· 11 months ago
What do you like best about NetNewsWire?
@cflinnds
· 11 months ago
Ah, hard to list all. The interface can be styled, it's clean and easy to scan but super informative. It shows me the feeds that haven't updated in a while with color coding. I have counts. I can easily mark all read or unmark. I can flag to save. I can tell it to disregard discarding old stuff. Big one: I can coordinate with my online NewsGator account to read same on my laptop, etc. I can make smart folders. The features page on the site talks about it.
nbradbury
· 11 months ago
Thanks for the nice mention of FeedDemon, Corvida!
prattmic
· 11 months ago
You could also check out feedly. It is a firefox extension that uses GR as a backend, and lets you have more of a magazine style view. It also incorporates comments (from some blogs), sharing, friendfeed, twitter, digg, flickr, ect.
I meant to mention feedly. I was just giving a general overview though. I kind of wanted my audience to branch out and do the research themselves.
neoCarla
· 11 months ago
Since leaving Bloglines quite some time ago, Google Reader has been what I really like. I must admit that the user interface IS quite blah, but the ease of use was all I needed, so I continued to use it. And within a few months of using it, I can't remember how, but I came across two Greasemonkey scripts that seemed liked winners. Helvetireader, and Show Feed Favicons. So I installed them, and I was very impressed. They made my Google Reader look a lot less blah.
With all that said, I think those little scripts are worth a try-out.
Rahsheen
· 11 months ago
I like Regator. It's not really a feed reader, but I can still import my feeds and it helps me find new blogs if I get bored. Blogs that someone has hand-picked for quality.
Also, I'm a FriendFeed addict so I get a lot of stuff from there. :)
achernow
· 11 months ago
I use Google Reader for the semi-social part of it. Otherwise, I'd probably use NetNewsWire.
Btw.. Corvida... You might want to check your FeedDeamon link. It goes to a 404 on your site.
-Adam
Corvida Raven
· 11 months ago
Yes the social part has me hooked in too.
Fixed the link! Thanks for pointing it out.
achernow
· 11 months ago
No problem.
Feel free to e-mail me if you want my google name to see my shared stuff. (Or just subscribe to my FriendFeed.)
-Adam
CantEvenGo
· 11 months ago
Corvida,
I think it's the style of presentation. I've tried lots of RSS readers (mac), and the static style of presentation doesn't work for me - it's too hierarchical, keeps me in a rigid reading pattern, and forces me to do more work to find new content from unexpected sources.
this isn't for everyone, but i can't live without Snackr. It's a news-ticker style feed reader that's synced to my Google Reader account, and it helps me discover new stuff every day.
anytime i come across an interesting blog, i subscribe to it with GR. i keep snackr open all the time (i'm currently pushing over 200 feeds now) and it scrolls new items from a random selection of blogs across the bottom of my screen. i see more stuff from blogs i wouldn't usually see, and when i come across good stuff i'll open the post in my browser.
Snackr requires Adobe Air, and some people complain about memory usage, but as a change of pace i'd highly recommend it
Corvida Raven
· 11 months ago
I'm aware of Snackr. Marshall Kirkpatrick wrote about it on ReadWriteWeb. It's a great tool, but I'm not much of a ticker person myself to be honest. It takes up to much screen estate for me.
I agree though that the presentation manner could definitely play a role in the "boringness" of it all. Google Reader isn't the best for finding new content. Feedly would probably be better.
All Comments
I've tried GoogleReader and haven't revisited. Too plain jane.
http://www.feedly.com/
With all that said, I think those little scripts are worth a try-out.
Also, I'm a FriendFeed addict so I get a lot of stuff from there. :)
Btw.. Corvida... You might want to check your FeedDeamon link. It goes to a 404 on your site.
-Adam
Fixed the link! Thanks for pointing it out.
Feel free to e-mail me if you want my google name to see my shared stuff. (Or just subscribe to my FriendFeed.)
-Adam
I think it's the style of presentation. I've tried lots of RSS readers (mac), and the static style of presentation doesn't work for me - it's too hierarchical, keeps me in a rigid reading pattern, and forces me to do more work to find new content from unexpected sources.
this isn't for everyone, but i can't live without Snackr. It's a news-ticker style feed reader that's synced to my Google Reader account, and it helps me discover new stuff every day.
anytime i come across an interesting blog, i subscribe to it with GR. i keep snackr open all the time (i'm currently pushing over 200 feeds now) and it scrolls new items from a random selection of blogs across the bottom of my screen. i see more stuff from blogs i wouldn't usually see, and when i come across good stuff i'll open the post in my browser.
Snackr requires Adobe Air, and some people complain about memory usage, but as a change of pace i'd highly recommend it
I agree though that the presentation manner could definitely play a role in the "boringness" of it all. Google Reader isn't the best for finding new content. Feedly would probably be better.