The RSS Aggregator Hunt

So I have too many sites to keep track of. And I've stopped using my last RSS reader, Google Reader, months ago due to lack of interest.

I guess I need to get back to some reading organisation and I need a RSS reader. So I need to take a look at a bunch of software other than Google Reader. I took at look the list of aggregators in the wiki page and looked for some best rss reader articles. Most of these articles are outdated though. Looks like most people have settled!

1) Desktop based readers. There are a lot of good non web based rss software. But I opted out of this category first thing. Mainly because if I have my rss on the desktop, I'll probably not read it because I can always read it. RSSOwl is a good offline reader at any rate.

2) FeedShow : Ugh, why did I go here? Such a ugly interface. I want a shiny artistic interface! OUT!

3) Newsgator: Hmm, it has a decent interface. Has folders, etc. Thats all I care about. But something is missing...Hmm...Maybe take a look at other software.

4) Bloglines: This was my first aggregator. Now that I go back and check on it, it's almost had no changes it feels like. Same interface for 2/3 years? Even with Ajax,etc coming in? Bye bloglines. 

5) Tiny Tiny RSS: Again, felt too outlook-ish. I don't like outlooks interface, regardless of how convienient it is. Turned me off.

6) Live.com: I started looking at their personalized homepage thing. Hey, I can have everything on one page! Had some high hopes on this one. But all that showed up on Opera was the header and the footer fused together and a lot of warnings about how ill lose my customisations if I navigate away.

7) Netvibes: This is another start page. I can check my mail and my rss and my chat, everything here! And what's more, it looks great! The only hang up is that it doesn't seem like a good idea if you have a lot of feeds. For me, its ok because I don't plan to follow too many feeds. And pages can help organise the rss. 

So that's that! I'll go and customise my page now!

Feedreader selections

I read a lot of stuff online and so I naturally use a feed reader.

After an unfortunate accident in Bloglines, I decided to change feed readers. I tested out Google Reader, Rojo, RSSOwl and RSSBandit, and Alertbear.

Web based readers

Google Reader: Very fast. Easy to organize. Has a nice 'Trends' feature. And also feed sharing. + Tags. But for me, it lost. It looks ugly(I really think so). And it's web based. Not a problem, but I've been using web based for a while now and I want a change to an desktop application.

Bloglines: It's fast and simple to use. Not as fast as Google Reader though. But again it's ugly. Has some cool features like Playlists, which let u 'play feeds'. And lots of other stuff.

Rojo: Looks neat, but not easy to use. Has strange controls and I don't like that it shows all the articles, even the read ones and I have no idea how to turn it off.

Desktop Readers

Alertbear: Desktop application. Quite neat. But I felt that it's a bit too 'bulky'. As in it occupies too much screen space. Too much empty space in buttons etc. But the desktop widget type thing is pretty neat. I'd use this if I didn't have so many feeds.

RSSBandit: Nice looking. But this one was slow. It took so long to load, it got annoying. Also organizing was a pain. I thought this was a dream, but it turned out really tiresome to use.

RSSOwl: Quite decent looking. Easy and fast(not as fast Greader/Bloglines/Rojo). It does all the basic stuff I'll ever need. It's perfect.

Winner: RSSOwl

Yay for me!