Don't Back Down

I've been using Bloglines since a couple of days after they launched (a little over forty months now, if memory serves). I've even written a mildly popular Firefox extension for the service - the Bloglines Toolkit. It's safe to say that Bloglines has been a part of my life for a while. But it's time to move on.

Though I've put off doing so for a while because it's always so difficult to get used to a new way of doing things, the time has finally come. It's just become easier to switch than it is to stay.

Part of the problem is that Bloglines doesn't respond any more. I can't say that the problem is due to the acquisition by Ask, though that might be it. It might also be personnel (or lack thereof).

But I submitted a request a while back (we're talking several weeks at this point) and I still haven't even received a response on it, much less a resolution. Frankly, it's a free service - if something doesn't work quite right, what can you do? Demand your money back?

The larger part of the problem is that the service hasn't evolved. And for the most part, that's okay. Really. I don't mind the way that it works, and the other services haven't been any better, so it's not a bad thing.

But recently the Google Reader released an update and since they did, I've been using it exclusively, and it's fairly safe to say that I won't go back to Bloglines.

Oh, sure, I might go back because the same thing could happen in the other direction - but it's just so unlikely. It's much more likely that the Google Reader will continue to evolve than to see Bloglines suddenly make a change. Or maybe someone else will come along.

In any case, I'm sure you want to know why.

While both readers have the same general interface, the Google Reader is much nicer. There's no getting around that.

The interface of the Google Reader is just better, and while the Bloglines folks have tried to upgrade their offering recently, giving it some small updates to make incremental improvements - it's like putting the proverbial lipstick on a pig.

The main complaint I've had with the Google Reader is that every once in a while the Loading message you get will time out. But I've noticed that it happens less and less these days than it did when they first rolled out the new changes a few weeks back.

If I have any gripes left with the Google Reader, it's that there is no way to sort items with the oldest items appearing first. When you read blogs, it's nice to see what happened to someone first, then read what happens to them last.

I completely understand the desire to show news with the most recent items first - but blogs don't always make sense that way. I've seen a number of people ask for this. I totally get how it makes sense for them to force "newest first" for advertising purposes, but since the reader doesn't have advertising (at this point, anyway), it would be nice if they could put "oldest first" in there as an option. How about it, Google?

The only other thing that I had to get used to when changing is the way I read. In Bloglines, I would typically click each of my folders one at a time to read. In Google, this resulted in a whole bunch of those loading messages, and when they had problems with the message, it meant waiting and errors. So I changed my behavior instead. Now I just click All Items and read them all jumbled together. It took me a while to figure it out, but I'm getting the hang of it now.

Before you try this, make sure you have Scroll Tracking set in your preferences (Manage subscriptions->Preferences).

I'm pretty sure this is the default. But if it's off, you'll have to click each and every item in the list. You can hit the space bar to scroll through, which is a lot easier than clicking each item with your mouse - but Scroll Tracking is way easier once you get used to it. Give it a try and I think you'll be glad you did.

If you keep up with any busy feeds, you may notice the Google Reader report a count of 100+ items - but have no fear. Unlike Bloglines, which stops giving you items when it reaches 200, the Google Reader will let you read them - it just doesn't count higher than 100. So you'll get all of your items. It just can't count as high. I think that's a fair trade. More than fair, even. I always thought that was a dumb "feature".

Two features of Bloglines are implemented in the Google Reader, but somewhat differently than in Bloglines, so you might have to look at them in a different way.

I have to say that I like the Starred Items of the Google Reader a lot better than the Keep As New option in Bloglines too. I like being able to go back to those items - like bookmarks - I don't want to see them in my feeds, and Bloglines has always had problems that the counters may remain but you can't get back to them, making the feature somewhat worthless.

I haven't used the Shared Items in Google Reader, but I think I like the idea better than having to share an entire feed like you do in Bloglines - it just makes a lot more sense, sort of a dynamic blog option. I'm going to have to play with it and see how well it works. I may even see if it has the same sort of option as the Bloglines Blog, so that it can be used as a link blog. That would be cool.

Another nice bonus is that I don't need to run the Bloglines Toolkit because the Google Reader updates the count in the tab title, so I just keep a tab open with the Google Reader (which I do anyway, even when using Bloglines), and I have a running count. Surprisingly enough, I'm not really a fan of extensions - though I am a fan of being able to use them - so even though this is my own extension, I like not having to use it.