Sunday, May 25, 2008
Switched to Google Reader

I've been using IE/Outlook as my RSS client for a while now but a couple of weeks ago, a switched to Google Reader.  Here are my findings so far:

IE/Outlook

Using IE 7, you can subscribe to RSS feeds.  It's very easy as described here:
http://www.ie-vista.com/rss.html

IE7 introduce the concept of a shared RSS store and Outlook 2007 use that store so you can view the blog entries directly in Outlook.  You can also manage the feeds directly in Outlook.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA101595391033.aspx?pid=CH100622171033

On the plus side:
Everything is centralized.
If you add a feed from IE, it will appear in Outlook.
You can use Outlook to search the feeds.
Great for archiving blog entries containing great info.
One client to read them all  ;-)

Downside:
Everything is centralized on one PC.
If I use OWA, I won't get the newest blog entries until I go back to my PC.
There's a limit on the number of blog entries (per feed) that can be stored on the RSS store.
Your PST file will grow so plan on setting auto archive.

Google Reader

I gave Google Reader a try a couple of weeks ago.  Google Reader is an online RSS reader so everything is stored on Google's servers.  The main benefit is that it's online so nothing is stored locally and it's always fresh.

Tour 1

On the plus side:
Everything is centralized on Google's servers.
It's always in sync.
You use Google search engine to search the feeds.
One client to read them all  ;-)
Each blog entry is marked as read after you view it.
You can group feeds using foders and Google Reader will list all the blog entries from that folder if you click on the folder's name.
You can mark blog entries with a star.  This way, you can retrieve entries of interest later on.
You can share blog entries.  Best of all, there's an RSS feed others can subscribe to.  You can also display an HTML clip on your Web site.
You can listen to podcasts directly from the blog entries.
You have stats but I'm not sure I want to know how much time I'm spending reading blogs  ;-)
There's a mobile interface.
Google offers you feed recommendations based on what you're subscribing to.
Dilbert displays nicely  ;-)

Downside:
Everything's on Google's servers.
Using IE, there's no easy button to subscribe to feeds.  You need to do the good old Copy/Paste.


Overall, I'm quite pleased by Google Reader. 

Here's how audio files are displayed:

Dilbert's feed showing how pictures are displayed:
GoogleReader2.jpg

Some stats:

Sunday, May 25, 2008 8:45:54 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #    Comments [2]  | 
Wednesday, May 28, 2008 3:57:15 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
Actually you can add a hyperlink to your links bar with this piece of javascript:
javascript:var%20b=document.body;if(b&&!document.xmlVersion){void(z=document.createElement('script'));void(z.src='http://www.google.com/reader/ui/subscribe-bookmarklet.js');void(b.appendChild(z));}else{location='http://www.google.com/reader/view/feed/'+encodeURIComponent(location.href)}

When you're on a page containing a feed (not on the feed itself) click the link and it should take you to Google Reader with the feed open, so you can subscribe to it, add it to a group, mark all as read,...
Koen
Wednesday, May 28, 2008 9:22:19 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
About what seems a downside of Google Reader:
> Using IE, there's no easy button to subscribe to feeds. You need to do the good old Copy/Paste.

If you open your Google Reader and go to the Parameters/Extras menu there is a link that can be dropped in your browser's "Link" toolbar. Clicking on this link will add the current feed to your reader. There is also a menu to build custom links that will tag your feeds while adding them.

Enjoy
Stéphane Denis | stephane dot denisAT NOSPAMtransat dot com
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