But are there in fact any viable alternatives to Google Reader?

So Google knows full well that most people will either stick with Google Reader, or still have a connection to it. If users do stick with Reader (by far the most likely scenario), they will use Plus a lot more now that it's the only way to share.

RSS Readers Ain't What They Used To Be

This is another key turning point for RSS Readers, perhaps the final innovation in this long struggling market. No longer are RSS Readers independent products with their own devoted, reading-focused users - or "word-y people" as one Google Reader fan described them on my G+ profile.

Sure, the writing was already on the wall. Formally popular consumer RSS Readers like Bloglines and Newsgator have by now either disappeared, morphed into new products, or became focused on markets that will pay for them (which usually means the enterprise market).

The RSS Reader market has declined because reading content is a very fragmented experience these days. That was my conclusion even back in 2009, when I cited the likes of Twitter and Facebook. Nearly two years later and the fragmentation has only multiplied. As well as Twitter and Facebook, there are tablet-focused apps such as Flipboard and News.me, services like Instapaper and ReadItLater which make it even easier to read articles on mobile devices, and newly popular social services - like Google Plus.

Where To Now For The Google Reader Community? Google Plus Of Course...

Even despite all of the changes in the way people consume content on the Web, Google Reader had been the holdout as a specialist RSS Reader product. It has (had?) a passionate community of RSS Reader fanatics.

While RSS reading as an activity will continue in Google Reader, as of today the sharing features have been "retired" and moved to Google Plus. Also the note-taking features. And because almost all community activity happens on social networks - like Google Plus - that effectively spells the end of any real innovation in the RSS Reader market.

So what of these supposed alternatives to Google Reader? In fact, many of them rely on Google Reader. Google Reader powers - or its content can be plugged into - a number of the products that have forced the likes of Bloglines and Newsgator out of the consumer RSS market. Services like Flipboard for the iPad (Google Reader is one content input option) and Feedly (multi-platform, but one of its core features is that it syncs with Google Reader).

So even if Google Reader users migrate to another product, they'll likely still be connected to Google Reader in some way.

May As Well Get Used To It

Louis Gray positioned the changes today as giving Google Reader users more granular ways to share things, by way of the circles feature of Plus. So, for example, you might share a technology post in Google Reader to your "Tech Friends" circle. That does sounds appealing to me. And already in my tests I've seen how easy it is to share things from Google Reader to Plus.

So for people like me, where Google Plus is my (Google-related) social network anyway, the Reader changes are a positive thing. As for Google Reader's avid fans, I feel for them - they have lost some beloved features. But they will simply have to get used to the changes, because there are no real alternatives left in the consumer RSS Reader market.

That is where RSS applications designed specifically for Android become incredibly useful and powerful tools. Available through the Android Market, there are a plethora of terrific RSS readers that will render users' favorite sites into delightful, visually appealing feeds. What are the best Android RSS readers in the Market? Let's take a look.

Pulse

When it comes to intuitive design and well-crafted user experience, Pulse is at the top of the Android RSS ecosystem. Pulse allows for a user to set up rows of publications that are easily scrollable from right to left with a flick of a finger. One of the newest updates to Pulse institutes pages within the app that allows for customization of topics. Do you like a lot of tech news? Page 1 can be your tech home page. If you like sports or politics or business, Pages 2, 3 and 4 can be set up for any topic you can think of. Pulse is fully social-enabled, allowing users to tweet, email or recommend stories right from the app. Use Pulse in landscape mode for the best use of screen space.

Feedly

In terms of visually appealing, customizable RSS readers, Feedly is the father of third-party RSS readers. It has made a grand transition from the Web browser to mobile, offering a user interface that is easy to use and packed with content. Users can import their Google Reader feeds or sign up for RSS feeds on the Web and have them be imported to the app. Feedly's color scheme is also customizable from either a white background with black text or a black background with white text, good for those who prefer a darker interface.

Google Reader

Google Reader is the original, ubiquitous Web-based RSS reader. It has always been more functional than flashy (the way Google has always made their products). Google Reader on Android is no different. If a user has a robust list of RSS feeds in their Google Reader and does not feel like going through the hassle of reconfiguring a new application with all their favorite publications, Google Reader is the way to go. Since it is Android, the smartphone knows automatically what the users' Google account name and login are, so installation is as easy as allowing the app to access their Google account. Just like in the browser, Google Reader allows users to star items, see the people you follow and explore articles from sources you may not be following.

NewsRob

NewsRob is a geared to the power user who wants a little bit more functionality than the normal Google Reader. It works on a freemium model - the free bare bones version of the app encourages the user to buy the paid version ($5.78 currently in the Android Market). The free version is relatively sparse. It allows for a user to import reader feeds from Google Reader and set up new feeds either by entering the URL of the feed or searching by keyword. The paid model allows for comments and third-party content to be seen in the app, functionalities that are uncommon in a typical news reader.

Find Topic-Related RSS Apps

In the view of many, the simpler the RSS reader is, the better if functions and the more users want to come back. The Android Market is full of pre-populated RSS readers for a variety of topics - tech, politics, cooking etc. One of my favorite is called "Simple Tech News" and is a list of RSS feeds from the top tech blogs.

Any self-respecting publisher has an app in the Android Market. A lot of them amount to mobile versions of their websites in the form of RSS feeds and work better than visiting the site through the mobile browser. Want to access all of CNN's published content? Or maybe you like conservative politics and want to check out Political Fizz. Essentially, if there is an RSS feed for your favorite website, there is a good chance that some developer has figured a way to stick it into and Android applications, either for a dedicated publisher or through customizable applications.

Nowadays I'm more likely to find stories to read via a vertical aggregator (the media-focused Mediagazer is my current favorite) and save them to Instapaper for later reading via my iPhone or iPad. I still use Google Reader, but in all honesty I now use it more to scan than to read.

Facebook has continued to expand beyond its original social networking purpose over 2010, including enabling people to track news and information of interest to them. In September, Facebook added a news search, by surfacing widely "liked" news stories from independent media organizations in its basic search bar.

Meanwhile, Twitter has become the place to go to see breaking news and the very latest updates about a popular story. If for example you want to know up-to-the-minute news on Wikileaks, then Twitter is where you'll find it. Related, powerful aggregation apps like TweetDeck and HootSuite have become the tools of choice for power users of Twitter, Facebook and other social information services.

Mobile: Flipboard & Instapaper

Mobile apps have changed news consumption in a big way. Two apps that showcased this in 2010 were Flipboard and Instapaper.

Instapaper is an app that saves web pages for reading later. But unlike older 'web 2.0' social bookmarking services, it doesn't just bookmark a web page. Instapaper saves a copy of the content so it can be read later, offline if need be, within the app. I use Instapaper frequently and one benefit has been that I'm able to read content in a more relaxed state - on my iPad in the evenings while spread out on my sofa, or in a cafe on my iPhone.

Flipboard is a magazine-like reading application built specifically for the iPad. My Co-editor at ReadWriteWeb, Marshall Kirkpatrick, is a big fan. He creates content lists on tlists.com and then subscribes to them in Flipboard (Marshall will elaborate on his methods in an upcoming post).

The main point here is that Web reading has moved away from the PC and onto mobile devices, which is changing the way we find, consume and organize our reading. Apps like Instapaper and Flipboard also place a big emphasis on sharing things. For example, I have gotten into the habit of tweeting links to articles that I enjoyed reading in Instapaper.

Whither RSS Readers?

All of these new social and mobile tools have meant a decline in the usage of RSS Readers. From a personal perspective, I have found that my usage of Google Reader has dropped and changed. I consume less content inside of Google Reader now and I mostly use it to scan for interesting news and information from niche blogs. If I find something I want to read, I'm more likely to open it in a browser window and then save to Instapaper, than read it within Google Reader. Your mileage may vary, but that has become my main use case for RSS Readers.

It may be that we can just no longer cope with RSS Readers, with the information overload that Facebook, Twitter and others have only added to over the past year. That's where filtering tools - like LazyWeb, Regator, Feedly, my6sense - have come into play in 2010. They aim to filter and personalize news for your tastes.

My6Sense is a favorite of several of our writers. It's a mobile app that filters your RSS feeds and displays an algorithmic guess at the most important news for you. ReadWriteEnterprise writer Klint Finley said that he uses My6Sense "when I'm on my phone and looking to see if there's anything important in my feeds." Co-editor Marshall Kirkpatrick added that My6Sense is "just like using Google Reader (they sync up) but offers recommendations based on your past reading behavior."

Tell Us How You've Consumed News in 2010...

Consuming content has become a more social, mobile experience in 2010. Facebook and Twitter in particular have fundamentally changed the way we find and consume news. At the same time, mobile devices like Android phones and the iPad have become more widely used - leading to Flipboard, Instapaper and other innovative reading apps.

It's also undeniable that RSS Readers and start pages have declined in importance over 2010, which has created an opportunity for apps like My6Sense that better filter RSS feeds.

Tomorrow, we'll be publishing our list of the Top 10 RSS and Syndication Technologies - which will have more detail about the specific products that have caught our eye this year. In the meantime, let us know in the comments how reading on the Web has changed for you over 2010.

What I learned from that discussion is that while the RSS Reader market is indeed in decline, there are still a number of compelling use cases for RSS Readers. Not to mention new tools worth checking out. So in this more optimistic post, I list 5 reasons why you should continue to use RSS Readers.

1. Control over Information Flow

RSS Readers allow users to control their flow of information, whereas it's impossible to keep up with the Twitter firehose of real-time information. Mathew Ballad (comment 11) put it well:

"I tend to check Google Reader multiple times a day. While I do keep up with bigger news through Friendfeed or Twitter, I like to keep up with multiple Graphic Design blogs, tech blogs, entertainment blogs, photography blogs and Apple blogs on my own. I just can't see myself ditching RSS Readers for something that I really don't have much control over."

It's not just about controlling your stream of daily news. Many people have feeds that they just don't want to miss. Tim Bray has a folder of feeds in NetNewsWire that he feels is "unacceptable when I don't at least glance at everything those people have to say."

Some people would argue that it's a thankless task trying to control your RSS Reader. I am one of those people and I long ago gave up trying to keep my 'unread' count at zero. Indeed nowadays I don't even try to mark as 'read' my email - using Gmail, I just let it all flow in and mark the ones I should reply to with stars.

On a similar point, RSS pioneer Dave Winer remarked (comment 80) that Google Reader "has the wrong view of RSS." In a follow-up post, he wrote that "fundamentally, Google Reader views RSS as email," by which I think he means users feel compelled to read everything in it. His view is that "reading every story is a meaningless concept" and that RSS Readers need to find a way around this issue.

2. Evolving User Interfaces

Some readers are expecting RSS Readers to transform their UIs in 2010, in particular for "processing life and news streams in the same interface." (Marco A Torres)

This has already happened to a degree in Google Reader, which has many nice social sharing features. @businessquests (comment 57) called Google Reader "a monitoring and intelligence tool enabled by tagging and publication of tag-based RSS feeds."

Eric (comment 19) agreed, commenting:

"I use it [Google Reader] not only as a constantly evolving newspaper, but to share and to create new snippets using the "Note in Reader..." bookmarklet. I also subscribe to others' interests and see what they have marked to share with me."

Eric also noted that he gets breaking news in Google Reader, thanks to its support of the real-time standard PubSubHubbub.

However a number of people complained that Google Reader isn't evolving fast enough in terms of user experience. I would put myself in that camp too. So, like me, you may want to check out some new feed reading innovations. Feedly (one of our Top 10 Semantic Web Products of 2009), Fever (one of our Top 10 RSS & Syndication Technologies of 2009) and my6sense (an iPhone app - our review) are 3 apps that received multiple mentions from our readers.

We use Fever internally at ReadWriteWeb and I just today downloaded my6sense onto my iPhone. As an aside, note that two of those apps (Feedly and my6sense) integrate Twitter as well as RSS feeds.

3. Tracking Twitter

It's not necessarily an either/or situation between RSS Readers and Twitter. Lynne Pope from New Zealand pointed out (comment 44) that she uses Google Reader to track some Twitter accounts:

"Time zone differences mean a lot of good information can be missed in a tweet stream. Pulling the important streams into a reader means the information is readily available."

4. Mobile News

A number of people remarked that they commonly read their feeds via a mobile version of an RSS Reader. Something for those of us who are sick of being tied to PCs to do more of, perhaps. Bill (comment 46) wrote:

"I use NewsRob on Android to pull the most recent 250 articles from Google Reader via my home wifi. Then I walk out the door and head for the commuter train, where I will read my feeds while other poor souls are stuck with the newspaper. Same on the way home and late at night when I'm rocking the baby to sleep."

5. Categorized News

Perhaps some of us are finding RSS Readers difficult to use nowadays because we don't use them efficiently. If you spend some initial time setting up your Reader and categorizing your feeds, then chances are you will get a lot more out of it. Randy Orrison (comment 78) described a good use case that you may want to emulate:

"I have folders in Google Reader for the blogs that I check every day, new release feeds for software I use (I could never remember to check all 20+ websites regularly), and down at the bottom of the folder list feeds from busy aggregators (like TechMeme) and news sites (like the BBC)."

Conclusion

Reading through all 160+ comments on my post restored some of my faith in RSS Readers. Viva la read/write Web! I'm going to test out some of the tools people suggested, find new ways to integrate Twitter streams with my RSS feeds, read more on my iPhone using my6sense and other services, and do some re-ordering in my Google Reader.

What are your thoughts now about RSS Readers, given the discussion summarized here?

Frankly I'm more likely to use Google Reader to search for specific information nowadays, than to scan my subscribed feeds for their latest posts. So what's happened to RSS Readers. Do people still use them and is there still a viable market for them?

The first time ReadWriteWeb looked into market share for RSS Readers was 5 years ago, in December 2004. At that point, very early in the web 2.0 era, Bloglines was the clear leader and Google Reader wasn't even a glint in the milkman's eye.

2009 Update on RSS Reader Market

Well, unfortunately Feedburner no longer publishes any useful data about RSS Readers. The product has been infrequently updated since Google acquired it in June 2007 and it no longer even has a proper blog (a Google blog called Adsense For Feeds was the closest I could find).

Pheedo also has gone quiet from a blogging perspective - its last blog post was January 2009. Tellingly though, it has an active Twitter account.

The best data we have then is ReadWriteWeb's own Feedburner account. Here is the top 10 for Dec 09:

1. Google Feedfetcher 85665 (includes both Google Reader and its start page iGoogle)
2. Bloglines 38797
3. Netvibes 34894
4. FriendFeed 16269
5. NewsGator Online 6753
6. Firefox Live Bookmarks 2999
7. PostRank 2454
8. Windows RSS Platform 1587
9. Mac OS X RSS Reader 1307
10. Zhuaxia 1127 (a Chinese RSS Reader)

Feedburner's numbers always need to be taken with a large grain of salt, nevertheless we can see that Google is now over twice the number of Bloglines. There's little sign of life on Bloglines' blog either and its Compete.com traffic numbers show a decline since June 2009.

Netvibes, FriendFeed, Newsgator and PostRank are the only other english language competitors showing in our Feedburner numbers. The others are either browser (Firefox) or operating system readers.

Also note that Newsgator shut down its online RSS Reader at the end of July this year.

Conclusion: Google Dominates, RSS Readers Less Relevant

These statistics are by no means the definitive RSS Reader market numbers. They do clearly show two things though:

1) Google now dominates what's left of the RSS Reader market. Bloglines is hanging in there, but it seems like it's given up the fight judging by lack of activity in its blog and traffic dips.

2) RSS reading is a very fragmented experience circa 2009. People can monitor news and information via Twitter, Facebook, start pages like Netvibes, their Firefox bookmarks, their OS, aggregators like Techmeme, and so on.

Tell us in the comments how you currently read your RSS feeds and how often you check them in an RSS Reader - if indeed you still use one...

Update: I should add that our news writers use a variety of RSS Readers daily.

Feedly is much more than just another way to read feeds. Although it originally got its start as an alternative UI to Google Reader, today the service is part RSS reader, part social network aggregator and part search utility. Since its launch in 2008, Feedly's developer Edwin Khodabakchian has constantly added new features including Twitter and FriendFeed integrations, a river of news view, search tools, Mozilla Ubiquity integration, a Feedly "mini" toolbar and so much more.

Once installed, a click of a browser button transports you to the Feedly start page where you can browse through the latest news, comment, star, share, discuss and search through the articles displayed. As you read through the items, your activity is seamlessly synced back to Google Reader.

Although voracious RSS readers who subscribe to thousands of feeds may find using Feedly a bit slower than using Google Reader itself, a good many of the more casual consumers of RSS prefer Feedly's clean, easy-to-scan interface to Google Reader's more utilitarian look and feel.

Feedly for Chrome

The new Chrome version of Feedly is virtually identical to the one available for Firefox with only two major exceptions: there is no Gmail integration or Feedly mini toolbar available in the Chrome version just yet. The toolbar is one of Feedly's many innovative features which provides a floating bar that hovers at the bottom of your screen as you surf through blogs on the web. Toolbar buttons show you various pieces of metadata about the blog post you're reading, including number of Diggs and number of Google Reader shares. You can also save or share the post yourself in Google Reader or tweet a link to the article, among other things.

However, according to Khodabakchian, Feedly mini's omission isn't due to any technical issues. Instead, he notes in the comments of a Feedly blog post that the mini toolbar is in the process of being redesigned and when the Firefox version is complete and stable, he will then look into building a toolbar for Chrome. The estimated timeframe for its inclusion into the Chrome beta is 6-8 weeks.

How to Install Feedly for Chrome

In order to run Feedly for Chrome, you'll need to first install a dev build of the Google Chrome browser. These dev ("developer") versions of Chrome aren't as stable as the public release but allow you to play with yet-to-launch features like Google Chrome extensions, for example. And for Mac and Linux users, the dev release is your only option because Google has yet to provide stable versions of Chrome for those two operating systems as of yet.

After installing the dev release, you'll need to add the new Feedly extension to the browser.

Here's how to get started:

1. Download and install the Chrome 4.0 Dev Channel: Windows | Mac | Linux 32-bit | Linux 64-bit
2. Restart Chrome to make sure that you are running the 4.0 version.
3. Load http://update.feedly.com/release/feedly.crx to install Feedly.
4. Click on the Feedly icon on the chrome toolbar to load your Feedly.

After you have Feedly up-and-running, you can receive support through the company's Get Satisfaction page or by emailing feedly-chrome AT devhd.com. You can also tweet @feedly_chrome with questions, comments, and other feedback.

We're beyond excited to see Feedly on Chrome - although it was relatively easy to give up most of our Firefox extensions when we made the move to the Chrome browser, Feedly was one of the few that was sorely missed. However, if you're a more cautious user hesitant to install test builds of your browser and experimental extensions, you may not have to wait much longer before you can play with fully functional and stable versions of both. Yesterday, Google put out the call for developers to begin submitting their extensions for inclusion in the upcoming Chrome extension gallery, a step that signifies that this feature is closer than ever to launching. When the time comes, we're sure that Feedly will be among the top-rated extensions found there.

In Opera 9.6, a new feed preview feature has been introduced that turns any RSS feed into a magazine-style page where the articles in an feed appear as columns. (See image below). With the feeds laid out in this manner, suddenly RSS reading becomes accessible, understandable, and far less geeky than its acronym implies. Although heavy RSS users and techie folks will probably continue to use an RSS reader like Google Reader, a magazine-style layout is a great option for a light reader or someone new to RSS.

Previewing RWW's Feed

In a way, Opera's new magazine-style feature reminds us very much of how the Firefox extension, Feedly, operates. With Feedly installed, you can view your Google Reader feeds in an easy-to-read format while still being able to hop into your different folders. Of course, Feedly does so much more than just change the layout of Google Reader, but that's a whole other topic.

The difference between Feedly's magazine interface and what Opera does is that Opera only displays feeds in this manner when you preview them while deciding whether or not to subscribe. That's disappointing. We were hoping that Opera would include this as a new option under the "Display -> View" settings in Opera's built-in RSS reader, too. Unfortunately, those view settings have remained the same. Feed reading there is still an inbox-like experience, with feeds titles in one window and the articles in a second window. This familiar Outlook format works for some people, we're sure, but to have the magazine-style option here as well would have been a nice treat.

Other New Features

In addition to the preview feeds feature, Opera 9.6 also adds other updates, including the following:

• Expanded Opera Link: Opera Link is one of the browser's best features. With it, you have access to your data from any computer or mobile device. It synchronizes your bookmarks, Speed Dial, notes taken in your Opera browser, and personal bar. With the update to Opera 9.6, Opera Link now lets you take your favorite search engines and browser history with you, too.
• Optimized Opera Mail: Opera's built-in e-mail client, Opera Mail, now includes "low-bandwidth mode" to retrieve mails even faster when bandwidth is limited. This is great for when you're on the road and trying to use your air card in a bad spot where the signal isn't very strong.
• Prioritized e-mail: Opera Mail has two new ways to manage e-mail conversations. Keep an eye on important threads and contacts by following them, or ignore less important threads and contacts with a single click. Looks like you can start to manage your information overload with this.
• Increased speed: Opera 9.6 improves the quick responsiveness and page loading of Opera 9.5.
• Improved fluency: Opera added support for Indonesian, Ukrainian, Estonian, Hindi, Telugu, and Tamil languages.

Feedly's River of News

This new river view offers the following features:

• Longer lists of 200+ articles, loaded on demand as you scroll.
• Ability to set various type of filters: unread, category, subscription.
• Keyboard shortcuts - the same as Google Reader
• Ability to click on the summary of an article and expand it inline.
• Ability to play video and listen to podcasts directly from the list.
• Google Reader-like ability to automatically mark articles as read while scrolling
• Summize-like notifications when new articles are published.

Now even sophisticated RSS users can have the best of both worlds - quick access to all of Feedly's features while also being able to scan the news almost as fast as in Google Reader itself.

Build A Custom Search Engine Using Your Social Bookmarks

Last week, Yahoo finally unveiled the long-awaited new version of the social bookmarking site Delicious. Along with the new URL, simply delicious.com, the site got a revamped UI and added new features like selectable detail levels and alphabetical sorting of bookmarks. However, amid the delighted oohs and ahhs from the tech community over the new-and-improved site, some people were raising the valid question: "Who bookmarks anymore?" Besides bookmarking for the sake of making sure a site gets seen in your FriendFeed stream, the truth is that many people bookmark, but then turn to Google search when they actually want to find something.

Mainstream Web Watch: The Olympics & Online Video

The Beijing Olympics started this week and what better test of the mainstream web is there than the world's biggest sports event. One of the most obvious ways the Web will be utilized with the Beijing Olympics is with online video coverage. In the US, NBC has teamed up with Microsoft Silverlight for 2,200 hours of live coverage. Meanwhile in China, Adobe has teamed up with a Chinese network.

Mainstreaming RSS: Regator is Now in Public Beta

We first wrote about the mainstream RSS reader and blog directory Regator in early July. At that time, Regator was still in private testing, but this week, it has opened up its doors for a public beta release. Since we first covered Regator, the developers have made some important changes to their service, including the ability to upload OPML files. Even with this feature, though, Regator still remains a highly curated service, where every new entry in its blog directory has to be approved by the editors.

Microsoft Relaunches Windowslive.com as a Community Site

Until now, Microsoft had used WindowsLive.com as the main hub for getting information about its Live branded services like Messenger, Hotmail, Spaces, SkyDrive, and Photo Gallery. This week, Microsoft re-launched the site as a community site, where users can exchange information and ideas about how to best use these tools. As Marty Collins, the Windows Live senior marketing manager explained to us in an interview last week, the idea behind this redesign is to better explain to users how they can use these services together, as well as fostering an active user community.

SEE MORE WEB PRODUCTS COVERAGE IN OUR PRODUCTS CATEGORY

Web Trends

What's Your Vision of the Future of the Web? Mozilla Wants to Know

Everything's changing on the internet these days, so it's as good a time as any to make some drastic changes to the way we interact with it too. Mozilla Labs has put out a call for anyone in the world to share their vision of how they would like to see the browser, or the web in general, look and act in the future. Called The Concept Series, the project will track down and share future web concepts submitted through a very simple process. What would you like the web to look like in the future? We offer one of our favorite visions below.

The Future of Blogging Revealed

There has been a lot of talk lately about the changing face of the blogging landscape. Darren Rowse of ProBlogger asked if blogging has lost its relational focus; Scoble explained why tech blogging has failed you; and even though not everyone agreed with his every statement, there was a renewed commitment in the blogosphere to return to blogging about what excites instead of just writing about "Apple's newest gizmo or the peccadillos of tech personalities." However, we're wondering if people even need to blog anymore...at least in the traditional sense.

The Olympics & Social Media Marketing

This week we looked at how Web technology is being used in the Beijing Olympics. In this post we check out how some of the world's leading brands are using social media tools in their Olympics campaigns. Our first post discussed how online video will be a big part of this Olympics, which is great for consumers. The Web can also be a boon for brands too, when it comes to major sporting events.

Will The Semantic Web Have a Gender?

One academic warns that it might and says we need to pay attention to it.

As machines learn to understand what the web means, what perspective will they understand it from? Who is teaching them? "Objective" descriptions of the world and the relationships in it can cause real problems, particularly for people with little power in those relationships. How will the emerging Semantic Web understand relationships and what will that mean for us as human users?

SEE MORE WEB TRENDS COVERAGE IN OUR TRENDS CATEGORY

That's a wrap for another week! Enjoy your weekend everyone.

Back in 2005, though, we called Bloglines the "Google of RSS," and even today, Bloglines is still slightly ahead of Google Reader in terms of its user base.

Also in 2005, a number of long discussions about advertising on Bloglines and in RSS aggregators in general kept the blogosphere quite busy. Back then, many publishers protested when Bloglines announced that it was planning to put contextual ads next to their content, and in the end, Bloglines backed off from the idea and did not feature any advertising on its site until today. This early controversy around advertising in RSS aggregators probably also led most of Bloglines' competitors like Newsgator or Google Readerto shy away from putting ads on their services as well.

For Now, Ads on Start Page Only

The difference this time, however, is that Bloglines is only putting the ads on the start page, where Bloglines only displays information about the service itself and doesn't feature any external content. According to a post on the Bloglines blog, Bloglines is also pursuing other monetization options within the feed reader, though the post does not go into any specifics.

Bring Your Own OPML

One of our main issues we had with the earlier incarnation of Regator was that you couldn't import your own OPML files, which seemed to restrict it quite a bit as an RSS reader for more advanced users. While Regator now allows you to upload your own OPML files, your imported feeds will only be visible to you because of Regator's approach of personally vetting all feeds shown on the site. At the same time, Regator will look at every imported feed and consider them for inclusion in the general index, which turns uploading your OPML file into a recommendation mechanism.

New Features

Also new in this release is the ability to share post via Twitter, Facebook, and email. Besides this, Regator spent a lot of time polishing and tweaking the service, as well as adding a few minor features. For the near future, Regator is also expecting to give its users a unique page for shared posts akin to Google's Shared Items pages.

What About Advanced Users?

In our earlier review, we said that Regator was a great resource for mainstream users and maybe even a good introduction to RSS in general. With the ability to upload custom OPML files and the soon to be released Shared Items pages, Regator is now closer to being worth a second look for more advanced users as well. What does hold it back for power users, though, is still the fact that it only displays summaries of articles and doesn't display any images in those summaries. There are good reasons for that, including the fact that the folks at Regator want to give traffic back to those who write the content, but it does make the site just a bit less useful in comparison to a regular RSS reader.

Not For You? That's OK

If you haven't checked out Alltop since its launch, it's probably because you fall more into the earlier adopter set - you were interested in taking a look at the shiny new site at the time, but you're still more than happy with your RSS reader and see no reason to switch. For early adopters like us, using a site like Alltop seems be like moving backwards. That's OK - that's as it should be.

We tend to use services like Google Reader or a configurable start page like Netvibes to read our feeds and this is fine for us. However, we're not necessarily representative of the masses. Not everyone wants to tweak and customize their own personal reader - they simply want a web destination where they can catch up on the news. Alltop can serve that purpose.

Nudge People Into RSS With Alltop

Alltop is also a great resource for getting people started with RSS. Next time you're trying to explain RSS to a friend, you can just send them a link to an Alltop page instead with a note saying "here's a great example of RSS in use." There are so many different subjects covered now, it's easy to find a page (or two or three) that your friend would enjoy, no matter their interests. They've got pages on countries (ex: Argentina), Sports (ex: Hockey), religions (ex: Muslim), activities (ex: crafts), educational resources (ex: personal finance), professions (ex: sales), events (ex: summer Olympics), and so many more.

When your friend returns to you after a while asking if they can add another web site to their Alltop page, you'll know that it's then time to move them into a more robust RSS solution like Netvibes, for example. Alltop was just their training wheels - now they're ready to ride.

Web 2.0 For Beginners

Not only can Alltop help people get into RSS, it's also useful for those just signing up with various Web 2.0 services for the first time. One of the problems with getting into the social web is that when you come so late the game, you don't even know where to begin. The early adopter set has been re-creating their friend graph on numerous sites for years - we know who's interesting to us, who our friends are, who we want to avoid, etc. A Web 2.0 beginner, on the other hand, signs up for a service like Twitter or FriendFeed, and is at a loss.

But that's where a service like Alltop is, again, very useful. When your friend asks you who to follow, you can point them to the Twitterati and Frienderati "starter packs." Here, they can pick and chose from those sites' more prominent users. (They even have the Utterati covered now - who knows what next? Identerati?)

Conclusion

Alltop may not be the most glamorous of today's web resources, but its extensive pages are great tools to nudge people towards the more complex apps we embrace today as both techies and social media enthusiasts. As representatives of this movement, be it the "groundswell", social media, Web 2.0, or whatever you want to call it, we need to think about how we can make transitions easier for those who still live very much inside the web 1.0 bubble (besides the occasional foray into MySpace, that is). Alltop is certainly a tool that can help with that move, which is why we felt like revisiting this application today.

Someone once called Alltop a "big pile of nothing" (you know who!). They couldn't have been more wrong. You may not have a use for Alltop yourself, but it's time you showed it to your mom and dad.

When you're reading any item from a particular feed, you'll notice thumbs up/thumbs down buttons at the top for voting and a button that keeps track of how many votes a particular post has received. There's also an option to email the article to a friend or bookmark it for yourself.

Viewing a Post on FeedzZ

However, what's really interesting are the tags at the bottom of the post. These tags aren't generated by people, but by the underlying semantic technologies. For example, our recent post "Watch Out Silicon Valley: Here Comes NYC" was tagged: new york michael bloomberg internet week web-oriented technologies seed-stage technology fund. There's also a "related entries" link which displays a list of posts with at least one of the same tags. In this example, thanks to the tag "New York," there were several unrelated entries listed here, but there was also a link to an article about the NYC Seed Fund. So in this case, the more accurate results came from just viewing the "internet week" tag.

In addition to the tags on each post, every page of FeedzZ has an automatically generated, semantically created tag cloud on the left which you can use to see all the posts about a particular subject (Example: Bill Gates).

Issues With FeedzZ

Of course, these related entries and tags could become infinitely more useful if you were to upload your own OPML file. Unfortunately, for true feed junkies that's probably something that will have to wait, since FeedzZ currently imposes a limit on OPML file sizes, restricting them 100 KB or less. (At 142 KB for my subscription list, I was out of luck).

FeedzZ is certainly an interesting experiment in semantics, but that being said, the site still needs a lot more finesse to really be successful. The OPML restriction is only one of the issues. Even if you manage to get your OPML uploaded, it's difficult to determine how to proceed with the data you've imported. You have to find your way into your profile section (no link is provided) and then you have to create a folder structure and classify your feeds. Shouldn't a semantic system know where the feeds belong? When I tried this, I couldn't even classify my feeds manually. Although I clicked the "Classify" button, there was never a feed in the drop-down list to select (see below), so I couldn't proceed. It's as if that piece of the web site was not even built yet.

Attempting to Classify a Feed

These types of issues are major problems in terms of usability, so it's hard to truly recommend the site at this time. However, if these problems were resolved, FeedzZ could then have a shot at being a useful online feed aggregator or even a great research tool for finding related news items on the topics that interest you. It's great that FeedzZ has managed to get the semantic RSS technologies working, but now they need to turn their attention to the user experience and UI design so we all can appreciate their efforts.

An RSS reader like illumio could have a real shot at marketshare among the digerati if not for a few issues. The app, more of a competitor to the Newsgator desktop reader product line than to online readers, provides automatic filtering of your news feeds. Unlike technologies like AideRSS, which filters by popularity, illumio personalizes your feed reading experience by determining what's important to you and then displaying those top articles in a newspaper layout.

Illumio is not new, but its latest incarnation - illumio version 3.0 - was only released a couple of weeks ago. With this version, the app, although downloadable software, now launches within a web browser window. The UI has also been completely redesigned so articles are easier to read and navigation is simplified.

illumio

However, what's really interesting about illumio is not the fact that you can read your RSS in a newspaper layout - it's the built-in filtering technologies the software employs to do so. In order to determine your interests, illumio scans the files on your computer to discover your interests and expertise. Not to worry, though - this information is never shared with others, nor does it ever leave your PC, according to the company. The privacy-conscious set might find that a little bit disconcerting, but you have to admit - that's certainly a unique approach to uncovering someone's interests in order to personalize their news.

Using illumio

When configuring the software for the first time, you must initially specify some default interests, but after completing the configuration you can remove any unwanted feeds and upload your own OPML file. (It's too bad you can't just start with an OPML upload, though.)

Once you're up-and-running, your feeds are displayed in a newspaper layout that features a tag cloud of topics on the right and your feed groups on the left. You can rate articles with star ratings to further train illumio as to what you like.

There's also a tab at the top of the newspaper called "Questions," because, if it wasn't enough that illumio was a filtered RSS reader of sorts, it's also trying to be a Q&A service, too. Here you can ask questions and respond to those posed by others in the community. While that might be useful in a business environment where team members review feeds together and then discuss as a group, it's hard to see exactly how this would really benefit a typical user.

Recommendation Alone Doesn't Ensure Success

Unfortunately for illumio, their great strides in improving recommendation technologies are going to be overlooked by the community they wish to engage for two major reasons: 1) it's downloadable software, 2) it's Windows only.

While they are working on a Mac version (sign up here to be notified of its release), the fact that illumio is a software download is going to be a huge turn-off for many users. Those at illumio maintain that the reason for it being a download is due to privacy concerns - since it scours your hard drive to assist with its recommendation and filtering services, you wouldn't necessarily want that private data stored online. That being said, most users are looking for filtering and recommendation to occur within their web apps, so illumio doesn't have a chance at converting anyone beyond the already small niche of desktop reader fans.

Instead, Try Newsgator Online

By partnering with a company called SenseArray, NewsGator Online is now offering RSS feed recommendations to its users. These recommendations come from the data NewsGator had been collecting en masse from their users as well as from an individual's actions - like a thumbs up or thumbs down - that were performed in their desktop reader (either FeedDemon for Windows and NetNewsWire for the Mac).

This latest news comes on the heels of last month's announcement about Newsgator's incorporation of our favorite filtering service, AideRSS. While both of these technologies are currently only available in Newsgator's online reader, there are plans to make them available in the desktop readers as well.

Additionally, according to a blog post on Venture Chronicles, the company has also been working with mSpoke to provide a categorization capability to their products that will soon offer Wikipedia-style indexing of content.

Newsgator Online, image courtesy of Jeff Nolan

Who Will Win?

With illumio's commitment to being a downloadable product only, Newsgator has the advantage, but even it still faces opposition from the still popular online reader provided by Bloglines as well as the increasingly-popular Google Reader.

Although users are demanding products that provide filtering, it's yet to be seen whether or not they will ditch their currently preferred online readers just to have access to these tools. If anything, Google Reader is one of the worst when it comes to filtering - in fact, its social feature that lets friends share stories means that you are likely to read the same story over and over again. Yet, it is growing in popularity despite its lack of filtering. (That is, unless you just read your friends' shares, which could be see as a type of human fitltering for your RSS.)

However, it is nice to see some forward movement in the recommendation and filtering space, even if it's not available in all readers yet. The fact that it's out there will mean other web apps and desktop readers will need to start offering similar technologies in order to stay competitive.

However, another service that was once exclusively for Google Reader users is expanding to give users a more accurate analysis of what's popular on the web. Today, ReadBurner announced a partnership with the personalized homepage service Netvibes.

The new partnership will allow ReadBurner to analyze and aggregate the activity streams of Netvibes users to incorporate their shared items into ReadBurner. To get started, Netvibes users can head to ReadBurner's "Add A Feed" page and insert their Netvibes username.

Netvibes users can expect their shared items to start appearing in ReadBurner approximately 30 minutes after adding their account. Only the 10 most recent shared items will be immediately pulled in. However, there are plans to expand this to include the latest 30 items. While there will be no counter to display how many times an item was shared via Google Reader versus Netvibes, Netvibes users will be listed in the "Shared by" section in green to better separate the services.

Partnership Responses

It seems that to be the first service to publicly utilize the new APIs for the Netvibes Ginger platform. With the partnership being made possible through the upcoming APIs, ReadBurner's CEO Adam Ostrow has only positive words about working with Netvibes:

Netvibes Ginger is a revolutionary product that truly makes the start page a social experience. We are thrilled to be working with Netvibes to allow their millions of users to help us determine the most important content on the Web in a completely transparent and opt-in way.

VP Product Development of Netvibes, Franck Mahon, was also enthusiastic about partnering with ReadBurner:

We are very focused on making it easy for our users to share their favorite content with their friends or the public. It has really been a pleasure to partner with ReadBurner in testing our APIs and we're really excited about opening Netvibes Ginger activities streams to external applications.

What's in the Future?

There are other services that allow users to share items that have yet to be included in RSS aggregation. Are talks brewing? We sure hope so. We'd love to see shared items from RSS readers such as FeedDemon and the controversial Shftyr included in the aggregation for more accurate statistics and web analysis. For now, users can look forward to more accurate statistics about an item's popularity via ReadBurner's homepage.