At the end of last week, we posted on Bloglines vs Google Reader - Who's Really Winning?. The answer was: Bloglines, but Google Reader is catching up fast. We've just received a new chart from Hitwise, which also shows Netvibes and Newsgator. So it shows the context of this "two-horse race", as Bloglines GM Eric Engleman described it. Here is the new chart:
Source: Hitwise
But can Bloglines hold onto its lead? On that theme there was an interesting comment on our previous post, by Erkko, who wrote:
"Even though Blogline still leads, this situation will not last for much longer. Google Reader will overpower Bloglines with the integration to the Google service portfolio (ala. iGoogle already), and especially when Google accelerates their mobile plans. Bloglines just won't have the steam to win this fight."
This is a fair point - Google appears to have a lot of integration options for its Reader. However Bloglines is owned by Ask.com, which has plenty to offer too.
After doing some testing of both Bloglines and GReader over the past week or so, I still think Google Reader is better. So Bloglines has more work to do. But the competition is now much better, since Bloglines Beta was released last week.
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Bloglines vs Google Reader Update: Can Bloglines Hold On?.
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Just yesterday some R/WW readers were bitterly complaining in our comments about Google Reader's lack of search. "I'm a loyal Google Reader user," remarked R/WW reader Stephen Glauser, "but if they don't hurry up and implement a search f... Read More
I think some of these may be from last week but that’s OK, this week has been rather devoid of interesting news not about Apple’s new products. Bloglines versus Google Reader: Who’s winning? Who really cares, why must this be a compe... Read More
Comments
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I'm a loyal Google Reader user, but if they don't hurry up and implement a search feature very soon, the first company who does will win my service.
Posted by: Stephen Glauser | September 4, 2007 11:40 PMGoogle Reader better ?
where's the "Search" button ?
there isn't one.
you can't make full text searches in Google Reader.
now explain how this is better, please.
Posted by: Uma Geller | September 5, 2007 12:44 AMI've switched back from Google Reader to Bloglines after the latest update. Google Reader eats up too many resources and is rather slow sometimes. And I don't want Google to know everything about me.
Posted by: Lars Fischer | September 5, 2007 1:08 AMYes, agree re search. The main issue I have with Beta Bloglines is that I can't easily scan all the latest news - e.g. a list of the most recent posts from all my feeds, just titles, no Start Page boxes. GReader gives that to me, but not Bloglines. That's my main use case for a Reader right now, to get the very latest news (and when I have time check on my other feeds that aren't necessarily news).
Posted by: Richard MacManus | September 5, 2007 1:40 AMResistance if futile. You will be assimilated.
As the technology becomes more mainstream people are naturally going to transition into the most mainstream providers of that service. Bloglines has been a staple of early adopters, but I highly doubt its going to be able to hold that recognition with the non-techie crowd. A perfect example would be MyYahoo. Hardcore geeks might scoff at it but have you seen how many people still use MyYahoo? (although the newer version is actually pretty nice) I expect iGoogle will gradually erode that marketshare. But given the increasingly short attention span of the average web user I sometimes wonder if full-fledged readers will ever go mainstream.
Posted by: RustyS | September 5, 2007 8:18 AM20 hours after my previous post, Google has added search capabilities and other niceties to Google Reader.
That was quick !!!
http://googlereader.blogspot.com/2007/09/we-found-it.html
Who said complaining doesn't work ?
Posted by: Uma Geller | September 6, 2007 12:53 AMI love netvibes!
http://www.flairandsquare.com/archives/142
Alex
Posted by: Alex Miller | September 6, 2007 4:41 AM