Bloglines versus Google Reader

Bob Russell · 04-23-2007, 08:28 PM

The online RSS feed reading wars are on! Both of these tools offer feed management and reading from a browser, which allows you to have everything in sync wherever you read from. That's a feature I need, but the disadvantage is that you do have to be online to do your reading. Recently many people seem to be jumping ship from Bloglines to Google Reader. I've been watching this happen, but felt so comfy with Bloglines that there was no sense in looking at alternatives. Until last week, that is.

You see, I found that some of my feeds were delayed before being updated in Bloglines. This seemed unacceptible if there was a good alternative out there, so I decided to do a quick, but unscientific, head to head comparison of the two.

I was interested in three factors:
- Ease of use
- Timeliness of feed updates
- Usefullness on mobile devices (specifically my PalmOS Treo 700p)

Here are the results...

EASE OF USE

Category Winner: Bloglines (by a large margin)

For me, there was no comparison. The slightly old-fashioned interface of Bloglines is comfortable for me, and it's very natural and efficient. I don't have to wonder what is going to be marked as read, and it pretty much does what I want.

Both readers were slightly less responsive when loading lots of feeds, but neither was too annoying.

One problem I had with Google Reader was that it mixed all the feeds toghether in the content pane (the left pane is sort of like a feed navigation tree in both tools), so instead of reading things that fit together, I had a mish mash of items which was harder to get through quickly. Another problem I had with Google Reader was that it kept adding more items as I scrolled down, so I was never sure if I was done. And if I was done, I wasn't sure if the screen scrolling jumps has caused me to miss a page or not.

Google Reader also has a funny way of choosing what to mark read. It could be an advantage for some users to manually mark things read, but for me it was annoying. There is an option to adjust that, but for me the whole thing was just confusing and I was unsure exactly what it was going to do. With Bloglines, if I did display some feeds and not read them, I had the other problem - there was no button to mark everything unread so I could come back to it later. There is a facility to "Keep unread", but that's sort of a permanent thing, so when you come back to display it again, you would have to specifically unmark the feeds. The best option seems to be just to requery the feeds you didn't read for a specific length of time (e.g. last hour or last 24 hrs or whatever). That works pretty well for me.

Both readers have a nice way to mark posts to keep them for later. In Google Reader you tag them, and in Bloglines you clip them. Each has simple access when you want to look at the marked items.

TIMELINESS OF FEED UPDATES

Category Winner: Google (by a small margin)

This is the issue that caused me to consider dumping Bloglines in the first place after using it happily for so long. I felt my feeds were coming in delayed. So I used both readers side by side and my little experiment seems to show that both readers experience some delays with the feeds being updated. Google seemed better in the feeds I paid attention to, but there really wasn't much difference. I have about 275 feeds, so maybe this only applies to high feed volume accounts. I'm not sure.

I do still worry that on occassion Bloglines has update issues, but I have no evidence or facts. It's just a feeling I get after using it.

USEFULNESS ON MOBILE DEVICES

Category Winner: Bloglines

This was quite a surprise to me. I expected the Google reader to be outstanding on mobile devices. But on my Treo, at least, I found the same user interface confusion extending to the mobile version, and it took me a lot longer to read the Google feeds with all the small screen requerying from the server. Bloglines plops a lot of stuff there and it's simple to look at a story, then hit the back arrow to get back to the list of posts. It's very natural.

CONCLUSION

Overall Winner: Bloglines

It's no contest for me. I'm sure there are reasons to like Google Reader better, but I haven't found them. If speed up updates is critical, then maybe it's worth it, but the interface is slower and more confusing to me. Maybe new Google Reader users just haven't tried Bloglines? Or maybe I'm just not using Google Reader properly. I don't know.

For the look of the interface, though, I think I saw a story in one of the feed readers about using a style sheet in IE or Firefox (with an extra add-in to enable it). Apparently, that gives it a nice new shiny look. Also, I should point out that Google Reader is probably still in beta. By the time Google is done with it, my impressions may be completely different. Or even after I watch a pro using it, I might learn a thing or two that turns me on to it.

But for now, Bloglines is my solution, and I'm happy with it. No switch to Google Reader for me. Tell us about your own experiences with online RSS feed readers.

Update: I should mention one more item that is important to mobile users. Bloglines is tightly integrated with Skweezer, which optimizes sites for mobile devices. Should you prefer to not use Skweezer, it can be turned off in the options. In my opinion, this is a big plus for mobile use, and serves a wide range of devices well.

Gatton · 04-23-2007, 09:22 PM

Thanks for the comparative review Bob. I admit to being a latecomer to RSS. I had bad experiences with it when it was new and it took me a long time to get back. Not to mention I hated the idea of a standalone reader application. It already takes me too much time to read all the news and posts I need to stay up to date.

But I've been very impressed with Google Reader. It has quirks as you mentioned. It has a tendency to jump when I am scrolling through headlines and the unread count in the navigation pane on the left is not always accurate. Still it's much better than some other solutions. Aggregating your aggregated feeds. Love it.

I will have to give Bloglines a try as well now that you have praised it so highly. Thanks again.

volwrath · 04-24-2007, 10:01 AM

I like google reader slightly better, but their mobile site blows, therefore Bloglines it is. Bloglines mobile is simple eloquent and works spectacularly. Therefore I shall stay with bloglines.

BTW saw this article via, yep you guessed it, bloglines.

Adam B. · 04-24-2007, 03:18 PM

I use google reader in List mode, and only have it show news posts and feeds. I can't imagine a better solution. Since I use keyboard shortcuts (j for next message, space to scroll down) it's mark as read works exactly how I would expect it to. I've never used bloglines, but I see no reason to.

Alexander Turcic · 04-24-2007, 03:25 PM

So you guys prefer web-based feed readers?

I tried using both Google and Bloglines, but I still feel more comfortable using my desktop reader GreatNews. Why? Because it allows me to scan my 450+ feeds while I am offline. When I am on the plane, on the train, or anywhere else without Internet, it's great to have new feeds to read, especially when they are full-text.

Chaos · 04-26-2007, 01:53 AM

I still have a bit of a problem with the concept of RSS... Well, more accurately, the implementation that most websites use. Grabbing the content automatically is a great idea, and I've found it to be quite useful (recently) for checking on updated software packages for Linux distributions. The problem I have with news, is that it tends to only give you a little blurb, and expects you to go online to find the rest of the article. This makes it almost entirely useless without an internet connection, and slightly inconvenient with one.

That said, I use a full reader as well, Akregator on KDE (Gentoo). It's pretty simple, but integrates well with the rest of my environment, so it's all I currently need. Only have four feeds currently, but I'm slowly building that as I find things I really do check quite a bit (which isn't that much, having been as busy as I have been recently).

Wizard-mag · 04-26-2007, 03:43 AM

If you want something good for mobile devices and you are willing to pay for it, you could try out NewsGator, which offers an application specially designed for Windows Mobile, while also offering applications designed for other platforms. The best on it is the (theoretically) seamless synchronization.

I personally use NewsGator Online although I have not any mobile device and even if I had, I probably wouldn't have the possibility to download news to it via the Internet. I chose it because at the time, Bloglines seemed very slow to me and Google Reader was in it's very early stages and when compared to other online RSS readers, it seemed quite good to me.

I quite like it and the speed is also quite good, but it has two disadvantages for me. The first, rather light, are occasional bugs. The second, rather more serious, is that, at least in my experience, it is not unable to withhold more than something around 80 posts per feed as unread (which is a problem since I sometimes do not have time to check a feed in two weeks or more).

By the way, online reader is a must for me, since I usually go to computer once or twice a week, so desktop based reader wouldn't really do the job.

Wizard-mag · 04-26-2007, 03:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chaos

I still have a bit of a problem with the concept of RSS... Well, more accurately, the implementation that most websites use. Grabbing the content automatically is a great idea, and I've found it to be quite useful (recently) for checking on updated software packages for Linux distributions. The problem I have with news, is that it tends to only give you a little blurb, and expects you to go online to find the rest of the article. This makes it almost entirely useless without an internet connection, and slightly inconvenient with one.

That said, I use a full reader as well, Akregator on KDE (Gentoo). It's pretty simple, but integrates well with the rest of my environment, so it's all I currently need. Only have four feeds currently, but I'm slowly building that as I find things I really do check quite a bit (which isn't that much, having been as busy as I have been recently).

I actually find the version of RSS that carries the full content of articles in it rather odd, since, at least when you use an online newsreader, it takes the advertising revenues from the source of the news to the provider of the online reader.

If it becomes standard, I think it could have a negative effect on online publishing since a very siginificant number of online magazines have advertising as their only source of income, so I am rather happy that it is this way.

micro · 05-22-2007, 02:53 AM

I'm a recent convert to Google Reader. I found that I just wasn't reading or using RSS feeds with external apps, while google reader just simplified the whole process for me.

Also the OSX theme for google reader is fantastic. Much cleaner looking than the default theme : http://www.hicksdesign.co.uk/journal/

I also find the google reader is quicker to load and scan for updates than my desktop one was, but then again maybe thats just me and my bad choice of apps.

The ability to check (and mark things as read) feeds on the go is fantastic. Makes the whole concept much better.

micro

04-23-2007, 08:28 PM	#1
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	Bloglines versus Google Reader The online RSS feed reading wars are on! Both of these tools offer feed management and reading from a browser, which allows you to have everything in sync wherever you read from. That's a feature I need, but the disadvantage is that you do have to be online to do your reading. Recently many people seem to be jumping ship from Bloglines to Google Reader. I've been watching this happen, but felt so comfy with Bloglines that there was no sense in looking at alternatives. Until last week, that is. You see, I found that some of my feeds were delayed before being updated in Bloglines. This seemed unacceptible if there was a good alternative out there, so I decided to do a quick, but unscientific, head to head comparison of the two. I was interested in three factors: - Ease of use - Timeliness of feed updates - Usefullness on mobile devices (specifically my PalmOS Treo 700p) Here are the results... EASE OF USE Category Winner: Bloglines (by a large margin) For me, there was no comparison. The slightly old-fashioned interface of Bloglines is comfortable for me, and it's very natural and efficient. I don't have to wonder what is going to be marked as read, and it pretty much does what I want. Both readers were slightly less responsive when loading lots of feeds, but neither was too annoying. One problem I had with Google Reader was that it mixed all the feeds toghether in the content pane (the left pane is sort of like a feed navigation tree in both tools), so instead of reading things that fit together, I had a mish mash of items which was harder to get through quickly. Another problem I had with Google Reader was that it kept adding more items as I scrolled down, so I was never sure if I was done. And if I was done, I wasn't sure if the screen scrolling jumps has caused me to miss a page or not. Google Reader also has a funny way of choosing what to mark read. It could be an advantage for some users to manually mark things read, but for me it was annoying. There is an option to adjust that, but for me the whole thing was just confusing and I was unsure exactly what it was going to do. With Bloglines, if I did display some feeds and not read them, I had the other problem - there was no button to mark everything unread so I could come back to it later. There is a facility to "Keep unread", but that's sort of a permanent thing, so when you come back to display it again, you would have to specifically unmark the feeds. The best option seems to be just to requery the feeds you didn't read for a specific length of time (e.g. last hour or last 24 hrs or whatever). That works pretty well for me. Both readers have a nice way to mark posts to keep them for later. In Google Reader you tag them, and in Bloglines you clip them. Each has simple access when you want to look at the marked items. TIMELINESS OF FEED UPDATES Category Winner: Google (by a small margin) This is the issue that caused me to consider dumping Bloglines in the first place after using it happily for so long. I felt my feeds were coming in delayed. So I used both readers side by side and my little experiment seems to show that both readers experience some delays with the feeds being updated. Google seemed better in the feeds I paid attention to, but there really wasn't much difference. I have about 275 feeds, so maybe this only applies to high feed volume accounts. I'm not sure. I do still worry that on occassion Bloglines has update issues, but I have no evidence or facts. It's just a feeling I get after using it. USEFULNESS ON MOBILE DEVICES Category Winner: Bloglines This was quite a surprise to me. I expected the Google reader to be outstanding on mobile devices. But on my Treo, at least, I found the same user interface confusion extending to the mobile version, and it took me a lot longer to read the Google feeds with all the small screen requerying from the server. Bloglines plops a lot of stuff there and it's simple to look at a story, then hit the back arrow to get back to the list of posts. It's very natural. CONCLUSION Overall Winner: Bloglines It's no contest for me. I'm sure there are reasons to like Google Reader better, but I haven't found them. If speed up updates is critical, then maybe it's worth it, but the interface is slower and more confusing to me. Maybe new Google Reader users just haven't tried Bloglines? Or maybe I'm just not using Google Reader properly. I don't know. For the look of the interface, though, I think I saw a story in one of the feed readers about using a style sheet in IE or Firefox (with an extra add-in to enable it). Apparently, that gives it a nice new shiny look. Also, I should point out that Google Reader is probably still in beta. By the time Google is done with it, my impressions may be completely different. Or even after I watch a pro using it, I might learn a thing or two that turns me on to it. But for now, Bloglines is my solution, and I'm happy with it. No switch to Google Reader for me. Tell us about your own experiences with online RSS feed readers. Update: I should mention one more item that is important to mobile users. Bloglines is tightly integrated with Skweezer, which optimizes sites for mobile devices. Should you prefer to not use Skweezer, it can be turned off in the options. In my opinion, this is a big plus for mobile use, and serves a wide range of devices well.

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04-23-2007, 09:22 PM	#2
Gatton Groupie Posts: 150 Karma: 368 Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Charlotte, NC Device: Kindle Paperwhite 2021, assorted Fire tablets.	Thanks for the comparative review Bob. I admit to being a latecomer to RSS. I had bad experiences with it when it was new and it took me a long time to get back. Not to mention I hated the idea of a standalone reader application. It already takes me too much time to read all the news and posts I need to stay up to date. But I've been very impressed with Google Reader. It has quirks as you mentioned. It has a tendency to jump when I am scrolling through headlines and the unread count in the navigation pane on the left is not always accurate. Still it's much better than some other solutions. Aggregating your aggregated feeds. Love it. I will have to give Bloglines a try as well now that you have praised it so highly. Thanks again.

04-24-2007, 10:01 AM	#3
volwrath Guru Posts: 713 Karma: 1001739 Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Nashville, TN Device: SGS3/PW2/Nexus72	I like google reader slightly better, but their mobile site blows, therefore Bloglines it is. Bloglines mobile is simple eloquent and works spectacularly. Therefore I shall stay with bloglines. BTW saw this article via, yep you guessed it, bloglines.

04-24-2007, 03:18 PM	#4
Adam B. Addicted to Porting Posts: 1,697 Karma: 7194 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Indianapolis, IN Device: iRex iLiad, Nokia 770, Samsung i760	I use google reader in List mode, and only have it show news posts and feeds. I can't imagine a better solution. Since I use keyboard shortcuts (j for next message, space to scroll down) it's mark as read works exactly how I would expect it to. I've never used bloglines, but I see no reason to.

04-24-2007, 03:25 PM	#5
Alexander Turcic Fully Converged Posts: 18,163 Karma: 14021202 Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Switzerland Device: Too many to count here.	So you guys prefer web-based feed readers? I tried using both Google and Bloglines, but I still feel more comfortable using my desktop reader GreatNews. Why? Because it allows me to scan my 450+ feeds while I am offline. When I am on the plane, on the train, or anywhere else without Internet, it's great to have new feeds to read, especially when they are full-text.

04-26-2007, 01:53 AM	#6
Chaos Evangelist Posts: 418 Karma: 281 Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Canada Device: Assorted older devices	I still have a bit of a problem with the concept of RSS... Well, more accurately, the implementation that most websites use. Grabbing the content automatically is a great idea, and I've found it to be quite useful (recently) for checking on updated software packages for Linux distributions. The problem I have with news, is that it tends to only give you a little blurb, and expects you to go online to find the rest of the article. This makes it almost entirely useless without an internet connection, and slightly inconvenient with one. That said, I use a full reader as well, Akregator on KDE (Gentoo). It's pretty simple, but integrates well with the rest of my environment, so it's all I currently need. Only have four feeds currently, but I'm slowly building that as I find things I really do check quite a bit (which isn't that much, having been as busy as I have been recently).

04-26-2007, 03:43 AM	#7
Wizard-mag Enthusiast Posts: 28 Karma: 25 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Czech Republic	If you want something good for mobile devices and you are willing to pay for it, you could try out NewsGator, which offers an application specially designed for Windows Mobile, while also offering applications designed for other platforms. The best on it is the (theoretically) seamless synchronization. I personally use NewsGator Online although I have not any mobile device and even if I had, I probably wouldn't have the possibility to download news to it via the Internet. I chose it because at the time, Bloglines seemed very slow to me and Google Reader was in it's very early stages and when compared to other online RSS readers, it seemed quite good to me. I quite like it and the speed is also quite good, but it has two disadvantages for me. The first, rather light, are occasional bugs. The second, rather more serious, is that, at least in my experience, it is not unable to withhold more than something around 80 posts per feed as unread (which is a problem since I sometimes do not have time to check a feed in two weeks or more). By the way, online reader is a must for me, since I usually go to computer once or twice a week, so desktop based reader wouldn't really do the job.

05-22-2007, 02:53 AM	#9
micro Connoisseur Posts: 62 Karma: 202 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Taebaek, South Korea Device: STAReBOOK STK-101	I'm a recent convert to Google Reader. I found that I just wasn't reading or using RSS feeds with external apps, while google reader just simplified the whole process for me. Also the OSX theme for google reader is fantastic. Much cleaner looking than the default theme : http://www.hicksdesign.co.uk/journal/ I also find the google reader is quicker to load and scan for updates than my desktop one was, but then again maybe thats just me and my bad choice of apps. The ability to check (and mark things as read) feeds on the go is fantastic. Makes the whole concept much better. micro