The RSS experiment: Recap
This week wraps up the Great RSS Experiment with a recap of all of the readers I've reviewed. I'll give a brief overview of the full review for each reader and then give you my personal verdict at the end:1. Firefox (Live Bookmarks)
Usability: 2/4 · Features: 1/4 · Full review
My first review was Firefox's built-in feature, Live Bookmarks. Although being built-in makes them convenient and relatively easy to use, Live Bookmarks are severely limited in functionality. In particular, they don't track read/unread items, making them a poor choice for anyone with more than a handful of feed subscriptions.
2. Google Reader
Usability: 3/4 · Features: 2/4 · Full review
Next up was probably one of the "purest" RSS readers, Google Reader. Google's RSS tool is easy to use and manage, but lacks some features, including the ability to organize feeds to your liking and any sort of additional content modules.
3. Google Homepage
Usability: 2/4 · Features: 3/4 · Full review
I followed up with a review of Google Homepage, which adds some bells and whistles and the ability to integrate content modules (news, weather, etc.). While Google Homepage integrates Google Reader, I found the integration to be difficult to use.
4. My Yahoo!
Usability: 1/4 · Features: 2/4 · Full review
As someone who's used My Yahoo! as a personalized homepage for years, it was my biggest disappointment. It provides no read/unread tracking, and suffered serious performance problems past about half-a-dozen feeds. There's a new version, but it's in beta and suffered similar problems.
5. Bloglines
Usability: 3/4 · Features: 3/4 · Full review
Bloglines shares a lot in common with Google Reader, but adds some of the features I found the latter lacking. One feature that really stood out for me was Bloglines Notifier, a small desktop application that automatically alerts you of new items.
6. Netvibes
Usability: 3/4 · Features: 3/4 · Full review
While it's more of a personalized homepage, Netvibes has great RSS integration, allowing you to add feeds as individual content modules. It also offers a Web 2.0 interface that's easy to use and has impressive customizability.
7. Pageflakes
Usability: 3/4 · Features: 3/4 · Full review
It's hard not to compare Pageflakes to Netvibes, as they have a lot in common. For some reason, though, I just found Pageflakes harder to use. Some of the design elements were a bit too slick and got in the way of the functionality.
Overall recap
This is my first week of sweet, sweet freedom, where I actually got to choose which RSS reader I used, and that choice was Bloglines. Personally, I found the notifier function to be the tie-breaker, as I hate keeping extra windows open. Bloglines isn't as fancy as some of the RSS/homepage hybrids, and a close second choice for me would probably be Netvibes. If you like to have content modules and control and are dealing with a few dozen RSS feeds (or less), give Netvibes or Pageflakes a try. If you just want an RSS reader, I'd recommend test-driving Bloglines and Google Reader.
Dr. Pete
· Friday, June 1I agree on Netvibes; for having such a Web 2.0 look and feel and so many customization options, I found it surprisingly usable, even with a decent number of feeds. It's a great option for us control freaks :)
Deb B-M
· Tuesday, June 5Thanks. I now make feeds into my livejournal, but I'm not sure that is where I want to read them. On the other hand, I'm not sure I want to go to another space, either.
Achtentachtig
· Friday, June 1Great recap, very interesting to see all the readers compared!
I use Netvibes just because I can have total control and it even looks good with over 60 rss feeds on a single page.