Improving the Online Aggregator Experience »
Some time ago (has it really been four years?) I started using an online RSS aggregator to manage my addiction. It was just easier than a desktop application because then I didn't have to worry about syncing subscriptions or keeping up with what was read and what wasn't read or even installing applications. And yes, I know that there are applications that do this, but I'm sorry, I just couldn't get into them. Doing it with an online service is just so much easier.
For a long, long time I was a fan of Bloglines - mostly because it was the first, but then because it was the best. But when they were acquired by Ask it just changed. It's not that they weren't as good, it's just that it didn't change much anymore, and Google Reader was better. Sorry, but NewsGator never really did it for me. But then Google Reader didn't change for a long time.
Sure, I developed the Bloglines Toolkit, and yes I realize it hasn't been updated in a while, but that's mostly because the API hasn't changed, so there isn't a lot that can be done with it. Anyway, that's where things stayed for a really long time.
But then about three months ago, things started to change. First Google finally added the "sort by oldest" functionality. If you come from the world of blogs, then reading in this way really makes a lot of sense - finding out the last thing to happen to someone and then reading everything leading up to it spoils the fun, so being able to read things in order helps immensely.
Then they updated the maximum feed count. This had been pegged at 100 forever - perhaps as long as the reader had been out - so you would often just see (100+) as your feed count, and if you subscribe to a busy feed, it can get very frustrating not knowing how many items you have. I'm happy to report that this has bee upped by a factor of ten. In other words, you'll be able to see the number climb to 1000+. Which can be equally frustrating as you see the Digg feed shoot that high after five days or so. But it's a nice change nonetheless.
Another nice advance on the Google Reader is the Search function, which allows you to easily, well, search. Seeing as Google is the search king, it is surprising that it took so long for this function to be released, and it definitely keeps them at the top of the heap.
Bloglines, however, isn't standing still. They have released a beta (you have to log in at beta.bloglines.com), and the interface is quite a leap over the old Bloglines, to be sure. I will say that the interface is much snappier than the Google Reader - in the reader there are many times that I'm scrolling and the interface just can't keep up. I haven't noticed this at Bloglines.
Just this week they also announced a Top 1000, which is pretty cool in that you can see the top 1000 feeds on the service. It would be really nice if they would enter into a partnership with FeedBurner (which of course is Google, so it probably won't happen) to get statistics from all readers, not just Bloglines subscribers, but it's still nice to see. You even get a little widget that shows you the trend for that feed. It's pretty cool, though I must admit that it doesn't make sense.
For instance, the last feed on the last page (#1000) has 771 subscribers, while #939 has 677 subscribers. Both feeds are at this writing, so these may change. My guess is that it probably has something to do with the number of subscribers who show the feed as public vs. number of overall subscribers, but I'm not sure - it's just a little odd is all. Then again, that's why they call it a beta.
They only real complaint about the Blogines interface is that the colors may not be for everyone. That's not to say that they are ugly, but they aren't exactly bold and beautiful, and they can seem downright muted when compared to other pages - including the Google Reader. The other issue I found is that the beta Bloglines installation is on another server (or set of servers), so your unread items won't carry over, and you can't currently use any notification functions to check on them, which limits the usefulness of the service. If they move to the production setup, or make those pieces available, it will be better.
