Rich RSS Readers: best of breed picks
This post was largely written by Ryan Stewart, a guest blogger on Read/WriteWeb. I've added my own Best of Breed picks for each category.
Feed readers can be divided up
into two general camps: The web based feed readers - such as NewsAlloy, Rojo,
Bloglines and Google Reader - are mostly powered by Ajax and
provide a basic, if unspectacular, list of features. However if you want to read your
news outside a web browser, having your feeds stored within these web applications
becomes problematic. The other camp is the standalone feed readers which include FeedDemon, RSSBandit, and NewzCrawler. They provide a lot of power, but are tied
to a single computer. Unfortunately, I have yet to see a true Rich Internet Application
feed reader which would provide the best features from the two camps and bolster mainstream RSS usage.
Web Based Readers
The current generation of web based feed readers have done a great job of using the web to make reading feeds a more social experience. Many of the web-based RSS readers allow users to rate a particular news post or tag a post so that it is more meaningful to other users. As a result, users of online feed readers can benefit from their peers and have a sense of the most relevant items. Rojo takes this a step further by allowing you to have "friends" that you can share posts between. However at the same time, when a user comes to rely on their favorite web based solution, they give up some control over their content. Services like Google's Reader are almost always available, but the smaller companies can have issues with downtime during maintenance or periodic disruptions.
Richard's Best of Breed picks: 
Rojo is my current favourite, although I still have issues
with its relative lack of speed. Bloglines is a
good solid choice, but lacks the advanced social functionality that Ryan alluded to. A Techcrunch
review late March by Frank Gruber rated Google Reader and FeedLounge highly for
performance.
Desktop Based Readers
The desktop solutions have a different problem. They offer powerful feature sets such as synchronization (allowing you to download your news to read later). However most can't provide the social aspect of the web based readers. They provide the users with a familiar user experience, which will be key to widespread adoption of RSS, but they can't provide the closeness to the web that the web based readers can. The desktop readers handle enclosures very well, which as RSS matures will become a very important feature. The ability to play music or watch video directly from the RSS feed is something that right now is possible with the desktop readers but has rudimentary implementation by the web based readers. The desktop readers all provide a solid tool set with an experience that most users expect and are familiar with.
Richard's Best of Breed picks: 
Newsgator leads the pack in my opinion, mainly
because of its synchronization functionality. Newsgator has a second-to-none suite of RSS
Reader products, covering all the major desktop platforms - Newsgator (Outlook plugin),
FeedDemon for Windows, NetNewsWire for Mac, plus its other specific solutions. I can also
recommend BlogBridge, a free and open source
desktop reader. I've been testing Blogbridge over the past couple of months and found the
smart feeds (basically custom searches) to be especially useful.
The Rich Internet Application Reader
Ideally, a news reader built as an RIA (rich internet app) would take the best things from the Web and desktop - and provide all of the benefits. It’s important to realize how valuable a quality user experience is to the average person. The ability to give that user experience in a package that also leverages the power of the web, is what sets RIAs apart. An RIA news reader provides the power of the desktop reader, but without the install. It can also incorporate the exciting social aspects of the web based readers. Because RIAs can be deployed on a variety of platforms, the user has absolute control over their content. They can read the news on their PDA, on their laptop, or on their cell phone. The ability to download content for use offline would be a big part of the RIA - and while online, the user could take advantage of tagging and seeing what their network of friends is reading. Nothing stands in the way of desktop applications implementing these kinds of features, but with an RIA the user isn't tied to one computer. The goal is to give the user access to their data at all times, regardless of how they want to consume it, and then get out of the way. Therein lies the elegance of the RIA solution.
Richard's Best of Breed picks:
As Ryan noted, there
doesn't appear to be a market-leading RIA RSS Reader at this point. In many ways
Ajax-heavy web-based RSS Readers would fit into this category - so I'd nominate the likes
of Google Reader and FeedLounge, as well as apps like Goowy that use Flash. But like Ryan, I don't have an
overall top pick in this category - perhaps people can make suggestions in the
comments?
Ryan's Conclusion
The ability to deliver desktop level functionality is something the web has been attempting for a long time, and we're getting closer every day. News readers are becoming more and more indispensable as people turn to blogs for their news - and even major news sites are making increasing use of RSS feeds. Being able to take that content wherever you go - online or offline, is going to become very important. The explosion of mobile devices and the coming of the living room entertainment system are going to provide new ways for users to consume RSS. The solutions that are going to get the most attention are those that can deploy on any of these platforms and also provide the '2.0' functionality that has changed the web.
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I think an important third category has been left out of the article: RSS-to-Email. We, at Squeet, feel this is a natural solution for most people.
Many of us have realized the similarities between RSS feed articles and email and have elected to receive our RSS subscription via email.
Since we're already running an email app and they are generally more powerful than RSS readers (especially in filtering, rules, flagging, etc.); it's actually more efficient.
I subscribe to over 80 feeds through Squeet (http://www.squeet.com). I have Outlook set up to automatically organize these feeds (I love Search Folders), and I don't experience any kind of Inbox overload.
Further, I don't waste bandwidth by checking 80 feeds separately. When Squeet has an article for me, it's retrieved during my normal send/receive cycle.
Nothing to install, set-it-and-forget-it online subscription management, full-featured delivery scheduling (live, daily, weekly), feed preview, and more. Squeet's definitely worth a look...oh, and it's free.
There's FeedBuzz and Publisher options, too...to much to list here.
After six months of using Rojo and at least twice that using Bloglines previously, I've switched to Google Reader. I prefer a web-based reader to a desktop reader, so I can't really comment on the merits of any in the latter category. I left Bloglines behind because Rojo's features seemed compelling -- not so much the social aspect, which Rojo is really pushing, but flexibility in sorting, arranging, tagging, and saving feeds and/or posts. Unfortunately, Rojo, as much as it is ahead of the curve in it's thinking about what an online aggregator can be, is not implementing its features very well. Too many things don't work right, too many things are "coming soon" and have been coming soon for at least six months. A big problem for me is the lack of something so basic as keyboard shortcuts. I was assured that was on the todo list the first week I started using Rojo -- meanwhile, other features have been implemented (or half-implemented, or implemented-with-bugs), and still no sign of keyboard shortcuts. After six months, my fear is that once the devs do get around to it, it won't work right (like the long-awaited, much-requested "mark page as read" feature still isn't working right, a month after it was implemented, and like the unread items count in the feed list still isn't working right, and hasn't been for months) and it will take them another six months to fix it.
I went with Google Reader rather than back to Bloglines for a couple of reasons. One is its integration with the Google personalized homepage, which Google has done really well. Another is tagging (both feeds and posts), which was one thing I really liked about Rojo, and the ability to sort and filter by tags. About the only thing Google Reader lacks compared to Rojo is the social aspect, which frankly was the least compelling aspect of Rojo for me. At this point, I think there are enough discovery and sharing options out there that you don't *need* your feed reader to offer that functionality. Between services as diverse as Share Your OPML, Personal Bee, TechMeme, TailRank, etc., there are plenty of ways to discover new feeds and compelling content. I'd rather my feed reader concentrate on providing me with compelling mechanisms to access, organize, and get through that content than on providing yet another means of discovery.
I can't believe you omitted Netvibes from your list of Web based readers. I have used Newsgator, Rojo, Pluck, Bloglines and Netvibes blows them all out of the water. Netvibes is not just a personalised home page, it has really changed the way I read 'information'. No association etc, just a satisfied customer disclaimer.
Incase anyone wants to read more, there's also an indepth review on our site:
Web Based RSS Readers:
Bloglines vs Newsgator Online vs Google Reader
Outlook RSS Addons:
Newsgator Inbox vs Attensa Outlook
Your desktop clients list is way too windows-centric. There's a lot of RSS clients for Linux and Mac, where the feed adoption and use rate is very high, and some others that are crossplatform.
nda
Nicola, can you elaborate? What RSS Readers are you referring to?
fyi I did mention NetNewsWire (a Mac reader) and BlogBridge (cross-platform). So I don't see how my picks are "way too windows-centric". But I'm keen to hear what Linux/Mac readers you recommend, because you're right that I'm no expert on those two platforms.
Andy C, Netvibes is fantastic - no argument there. But as far as I can see, for RSS reading it doesn't scale. You have to click on each single feed to read it and it takes a little while to load. If there was a river of news module, or some kind of 'smart feeds' functionality (like blogbridge), then it might be possible to scale it. But currently, I can only see Netvibes being useful for your top 10 or so feeds.
Don't get me wrong, I love personalized start pages like Netvibes. But I don't think they're RSS Readers.
I started out with NewsGator, a year later went to NetNewsWire and about 7 months ago, switched to Feedlounge. They're continually adding features, increasing stability and speed, no page refreshes, plus the 3-paned interface is where it's at.
At this point, Feedlounge is far and way my personal favourite. The one-year license, at $50/yr, is crazy cheap for what you get.
I use the free Omea Reader for my RSS reading ... always keep coming back to it but keep trying different products.
I tried NewsGator and then Attensa but they both make Outlook 2003 even more flakier.
Installed Office 2007 Beta 2 and tried Outlook 12 which uses the Vista RSS "engine" from IE 7.0 but I keep getting article duplicates and the feeds don't update as they should.
http://www.jetbrains.com/omea/reader/
I tried several dozen readers in an effort to find one that I could stick to without looking over my shoulder hoping something better would come along.
The final result for me is Attensa for Outlook, the online version, which is free. It has a 3 pane interface with the right level of "preview" capability, is platform and location independent, loads very quickly, has not suffered any performance problems to date and has no ads (thank you outlook add-on users for making the free online version possible).
It was important to me that the reader be free because RSS capabilities are being developed at such a rapid pace and because there are so many free options to shoose from.
Although Attensa does not include the social aspects of some of the other web-based tools, I fould that subscribing to a few social feeds like tailrank, delicious, etc. are sufficient resource discovery tools for my needs. After all, I read too much as it is...
Perhaps the best news is that using OPML imports makes trying out several dozen different options quick and easy. With Attensa, I feel like I found something I could stick to without looking over my shoulder hoping something better would come along.
I really thought that spending time comparing RSS readers was over for me until I found myself drawn into this RSS reeader review article. Oh well... perhaps I am not as committed to Attensa as I thought I was. Cheers.
Richard: [Netvibes] You have to click on each single feed to read it and it takes a little while to load...
That's really weird. I played with Netvibes a few months ago and discarded it for that very reason.
However, when you dig a little deeper, you realise that the proper way to configure Netvibes to drag feeds to tabs on your home page.
For example, I have 67 feeds split across 7 tabs (Tech, Sport, News, Work etc)
All feeds automatically update in the background and quickly (is this your 'River of News' ?). Netvibes displays the number of new articles on a per tab basis.
Now I wonder how many other people (like me and you) are underestimating the power of Netvibes from an initial, cursory glance.
Richard:
On the Mac platform a lot of user praise Vienna: http://vienna-rss.sourceforge.net/vienna21.php
PulpFiction also gets a thumbs up at Ars Technica in a detailed review (but not very up to date) of some of the available choices: http://arstechnica.com/reviews/apps/newsreaders-mac.ars/1
OTOH a good free and crossplatform aggregator (it's in Java) is RSSOwl: http://www.rssowl.org
nda
Andy C, I see what you mean - but I have 200-odd feeds. So by your method I'd need to drag 200 feeds into probably 10-15 tabs. It doesn't scale to that degree, that's what I meant.
River of news is when you get a scrollable list of new posts, so not really what Netvibes does.
Thanks Nicola, I'll check those out.
This is an interesting thread.
For the longest time I've felt that the RSS client aggregator market was stagnating. NetNewsWire, FeedDemon and most of the players on the market are for the most party pretty basic.
I still feel newsmonster (newsmonster.info) is very advanced even 3 years after I released it. I beat IE and Safari with a browser-based RSS agggregator by two years.
I'm kicking around the idea of re-writing core portions of it and bringing it back as a Tailrank product. It would be something I'd do as a side project and of course be released as a product integrated with Tailrank.
What do you guys think.? Is the market too crowded now?
Kevin
Definitely a matter of personal taste.
My faves are:
Web - Netvibes
Desktop - GreatNews
The NewsAlloy link at the very beginning of the post is wrong. Should go to http://www.newsalloy.com/ instead of http://www.newsallowy.com/.
Hey Kevin, thanks for checking the article out. I think the crowd of RSS readers says two things: 1) There are a lot of good ideas out there and 2) There isn't yet a killer RSS application.
Because RSS is so simple, it's relatively easy to build a feed reader with features you like. But the simplicity also means that there is a chance to really perfect an application from both a usability and feature standpoint.
I like a lot of the readers out now, but none of them comes close to the ultimate feed experience. I'm looking for the iPod of feed readers. Easy to use, and while not the best product from a technical standpoint, it hooks users big time.
I use Great news. Lightweight, portable, has bloglines support etc.
I wrote this a while back, but it still applies. I've reincarnated FoF as MonkeyChow, which you can also read about on the site.
I've found FeedLounge to be the best by far. It's fast, has great keyboard shortcuts, and is the only thing I've found that can totally replace a desktop application (I used to use NewsFire which was amazing, but FeedLounge is more so). $5 a month is a steal and the interface and speed lets me manage my 100+ feeds and their new posts in minutes each day.
Yeah.... I def hear the iPod of RSS aggregators. There's totally the case that RSS aggregators haven't yet hit that trifecta. I'm not sure there will ever be an iPod of RSS unless it comes from Apple due to market penetration issues.
There's only so much a startup can accomplish.
That said making a 5th gen RSS reader would allow you to look back at the good and bad of the other RSS aggregators and do a killer job.
Something to think about at least.
Kevin
BTW... the above link to newsalloy.com is wrong.
FYI... Alloy in Thai means delicious! :)
Kevin
Until it was bought by Microsoft and integrated into Windows Live Toolbar, Onfolio was absolutly superb
www.onfolio.com
It's integration into Firefox & IE was flawless. Sadly most of the features that made it so good have been "dropped" from the Live toolbar version.
If you can find v2.x and a key, it's well worth hanging on to!
I send the recommendation for the free and open-source "Vienna" RSS reader for Mac OS X!
http://vienna-rss.sourceforge.net/vienna2.php
Kevin, I definitely think you should work on an RSS Reader product that either integrates with Tailrank - or complements it. Even though I use memetrackers like techmeme and tailrank all the time (and indeed rely on them to keep myself 'in the loop'), I still struggle to filter the good stuff from my 200-odd feeds. So yes I think there's still an unmet demand for a new type of RSS Reader.
after using the late SearchFox web rss reader, i believe that none of the mentioned services and progrem even come close 2 what SearchFox had - Personalizing engine that learn what u like, and display this type of items first (beside using chornological order).
but now, Feeds2.0 claims to offer this, and also Automatic Clustering of items (like google news).
this kind of things, are the only way 2 deal with overflow of information.
and i hope more companies will realize this.
does any1 here know of such options in other readers?
i think Rojo does some sore of Personalizing, but not sure.
D.
I have used Bloglines and have tried many other web-based readers (Google, Rojo, Netvibes) and unfortunately keep going back to Bloglines.
I like the ability to sort sources and feeds into folders and then, if I want to, click on the folder to load them all or even load all folders' items and just scroll through them. I dislike having to keep clicking to read each individual postings, or not be able to have them loaded chronologically and within their sources (Rojo seems to have them all over the place as well as not loading the entire feed). I'm surprised that no one can do what Bloglines does. I just want a one click reader.
Does anyone know of something like Bloglines or do I have to be stuck with it?
I heard a lot of favorable reviews of FeedDemon so I gave it a try. I can't possibly understand how anyone can reccomend this given that it is not smart enough to remember which posts you read and especially deleted. I like the ability to add an dsort feeds by folder and especially the on-line integration but the reading / navigation flaws are deal breakers for me.
pete
Opera has been working quite well for me. I can set up filters and read rss feeds along with my email.
Richard: you're welcome!
I'd more than happy to point you in the direction of some of the pieces I've written on RSS clients but I'm afraid 99% of it is in Italian...
nda
Gregarius (http://gregarius.net/) is a good choice for those that have web hosting space with PHP/MySQL support. It's like having your own personal Bloglines that will never go away.
Here are a few more to consider: WizzRSS extension for Firefox. Simple, unobtrusive. reBlog (hosted or server based)a speedy way to sift through feeds and post to your blog (if required). For Macs there is the great looking NewsfireNewsfire and RSSOwl which is getting lots of good reviews.
In my opinion NetNewsWire is the best Mac RSS reader.
I have used it for quite a while now and it has been a great user experience.
A few feedreaders for the mac that deserve mention (beyond NNW, Vienna & RSSOwl):
Endo (By the maker of Ecto)
NewsMacPro
MacReporter
NewsFire
Ensemble (japanese) or you can just get it at VersionTracker
Postino
RSS Feed Ticker: NewsTicker
A single mention of NNW doesn't make for a really good picture of the state of RSS readers. You even missed that with newsgator syncing, NNW subscriptions, read articles & attention data are synced between multiple computers--removing your gripe about desktop based readers.
And take a look at endo, Kula has really taken a different view on RSS reading and has a very good product.
Hey Richard.
Thanks for the feedback.
If I do start working on something it will be at least 30 days out...
I'll ping you if we move forward here. Would be nice to get your feedback.
Kevin
Seriously, it amazes how many of these "Top RSS Reader" rankings neglect to include Jetbrain's Omea Reader. One reader above posted a comment touting the reader, and I would like to say, that for users who like to have a reader as a stand-alone program, Omea is the way to go. I'd be curious to hear what your people's complaints are regarding the program. Check it out and tell me what you think. I used to think Sharpreader was the way to go when you have a lot of feeds (i track over 500) but Omea handles them much better.
Omea is the way to go. If you have any qualms with it, I am all ears:
http://www.jetbrains.com/omea/reader/index.html
I have another addition to your list of RSS Readers because i noticed nobody seems to think about RSS Reading for the Blackberry. Readers for this device are still quite scarce although the blackberry subscriber base has been growing explosively the last years. I found the Berryvine RSS Reader on www.berryvine.com is a very good one. It's basic functions are more than sufficient for your feed-need :-) New versions are released frequently. You can download it for free for trial purposes on www.berryvine.com
I agree with Doron. Feeds 2.0 really stands out from the competition since it's the only web rss reader, currently in the market, offering personalization and a lot of other interesting information filtering features. I just got a beta account and I can only say it is superb!
If you haven't got your account yet (I think it's still in private beta) check out its list of features from their blog at:
http://www.feeds2.com/docs/pdf/feeds2_features.pdf
A definite addon for you list Ryan.
For an RSS/monitoring dashboard Klipfolio (http://www.serence.com) is my favorite. I am in PR and scan worldnews, blogs etc... and get all the results + alerts based on keywords through this platform.
Hi there. I have a question. Which reader in your opinion has the most frequent page updates? I need something that checks the page every 30 seconds to 1 minute. Are there any? I would also like the ability to forward RSS posts to email, or to my cellphone. I tried ZapTXT.com but even when you choose under frequency "as they appear", there is a 10-15 minute delay from the actual time the page updates.