Comments on: Michael Golrick on Google Reader

By: Max

Max — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 01:44:02 +0000

I set up Google Reader from an opml file exported from Bloglines. All the feeds came across. After this discussion I decided to experiment. I deleted all the Bloglines feeds, exported an opml file from Reader and imported into Bloglines. Then I marked both accounts all read. I periodically opened two browse windows and did a side-by-side comparison of Bloglines and Google Reader.

I didn’t see a lot of difference between the two feed readers. There wasn’t a significant difference between the number of new feeds in each reader.

Admittedly this was a short term experiment done over onky a day and a half but I’d say that choosing between Google Reader and Bloglines is a mater of which one has features that match your work style.

I don’t share Michael’s need for a global oldest-first setting and I do think that management of feeds is a bit easier with Bloglines. On the other hand, I do like Reader because it fits into a single sign-on suite of applications that I use daily and is is a pretty good feed reader for the way I work.

So, no argument from me concerning Michael’s decision to stick with Bloglines.

By: Michael Golrick

Michael Golrick — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 20:29:29 +0000

Yes, you can change it feed by feed. I’m im porting about 175 feeds, I don’t have the time to change each one, one at a time.

In addition, when I logged in today, I am getting old stuff. Like from my daughter’s LiveJournal account from when she was in high school. (She is a college junior now!)

In addition, for me it is loading a lot more slowly than Bloglines.

I am not convinced yet. It is not intuitive enough for me, and lacks a basic functionality to get me to change. If I were starting from scratch, I might entertain it. But to get me to switch, they need to help me import my feeds the way I want them to be without having to individually manage each one.

By: Greg

Greg — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 04:04:01 +0000

If he uses tags to put those feeds into folders, he can set the sort order for the folder, which would address the issue of having to go through each feed individually.

By: Greg

Greg — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 01:57:03 +0000

I’m with Max on this one. Option is very much available.

By: Librarienne

Librarienne — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 22:50:01 +0000

I think this reflects an element of Web 2.0 interfaces that I don’t see discussed very often – the non-linear, mushroom-cloud nature of it all. I remember being frustrated by this same reverse chronology thing when I first started reading blogs. Then came tag clouds and that was another adjustment altogether. Now I find certain situations at my job that would be perfect for a tag cloud, but I meet with a lot of resistance from folks who haven’t used them and find them too chaotic. The younger students I work with have whole-heartedly embraced this kind of navigation – not only do they ignore all chronological ordering in their surfing, but they find alternative ways of exploring a website like, say, a blog. They view by tag, or by “most comments” or do a direct search for whatever they want. Maybe we’ll start seeing this non-linear apprach in printed narrative form, too, if we don’t already.

By: Max

Max — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 22:14:22 +0000

I’m confused. I use Google Reader and under Feed Settings you can sort oldest first. Or are we talking about two different things?