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October 30, 2005

Google's RSS Reader

Okay, it turned out there really IS something wrong with my computer. You may recall when we last talked, I was having problems importing my Bloglines subscriptions into the new Google Reader. But I tried it at work, and lo and behold, the export/import worked quite smoothly. I think that's proof that I really DO need a new computer for Christmas!

So I now have all my required reading in the Google Reader. My initial reaction to the product is that it will be well-liked by those that monitor a relatively small number of feeds. Bloglines need not be overly concerned at this juncture.

On the bright side, it's quick and easy to figure out. Once you've subscribed to your favorite RSS feeds, the default view shows you the headlines in order by relevance. (By date is the other sort option.) I can't help but wonder....how do they determine relevance? Think about it, I didn't run a search at this point....so how does it know? It's a mystery to me, but I have to admit, the items listed at the top were quite interesting, so they must be doing something right.

This is not, however, the way I'm used to reading my feeds. In Bloglines, I can see which feeds have unread items, and how many. I can then choose which feed I'd like to read. I've become rather fond of this method. If I'm in a hurry, there are some feeds I'll skip. Others, that are must-reads for me, I go to right away. With the Google Reader, I don't have that kind of view as an option. The list of subscriptions doesn't indicate how many unread items are waiting for me.

But the Reader does follow Google's tendency to keep things simple and clean. And the relevancy ranking intrigues me. I may log on every once in a while to see the Google Reader displays items of interest that I've missed. If you just want an easy way to read a short list of feeds, Google Reader might suit you just fine.

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