Google Reader Beats All Other RSS Programs
What are the Advantages of Google Reader Over Other RSS Readers?
- It refreshes fast! In fact it’s so fast that my 1000 long list of RSS feeds takes less than 1 second to refresh compared to 3-4 minutes using NetNewsWire or Newsfire – both top ranked news feed readers for Mac OS X. This was the major advantage for me – Google’s super computers did the work more efficiently so I didn’t have to go through the torture of waiting.
- Entering feeds is a matter of cutting and pasting
- No need to have your own computer
- You can share your favourite feed articles instantly by clicking the Share icon at the bottom of each article. This turns Google Reader into an almost instant blog
- Along similar lines, Google Reader’s shared items allow you and others to make Comments. Now it’s really like a blog!
- Google Reader also has a Homepage which highlights some of your recently view, shared or new items as well as top recommended feeds. Don’t forget that you can also “Share with note” meaning that you can make some comments of your own.
- Another useful feature of Google Reader is “tagging”. Tagging is a system that I love to use a lot – it makes it easier to find things and it means I don’t waste countless hours having to organize feeds or specific articles (I’m serious – this is a real time saver, from 1-2 h to zero (0)).
- In addition, Google Reader gives you an idea of your reading and subscription list activity trends.
- Finally, the only memory drain to your RAM comes from your web browser which means you have more memory to run other programs. You can easily open Google Reader in another tab of Safari for example and then switch to another to work on Google Docs.
What are the Disadvantages of Google Reader Over Other RSS Readers
Of course even Google Reader isn’t without its down sides. Here are a few:
- First off, you have to be connected to the Internet to view your feeds which means you can’t view them offline. In my case this isn’t really a huge deal. If I have something I want to reference and I’ve already read it then I’ve already saved it in full.
RSS summaries are not always full articles either so this disadvantage may not actually be that great.
- If you’re a Mac user you won’t have access to any fancy Aqua interfaces that you might typically be used to or enjoy. For me it wasn’t so big of a deal as long as the RSS reader helped me do what I needed to do.
- Adding new RSS feeds is not a click of the button in some cases unlike software RSS readers like NetNewsWire or Newsfire.
Concluding
Google Reader’s list of benefits, general ease of use and lack of any significant weaknesses makes it the best RSS tool hands down (as far as I’m concerned, you’ll have to be your own first judge however).
If you have any comments on Google Reader or other RSS programs drop me a line! I’d love to hear back. Also, if you have any suggestions for a better Mac OS X program that can handle RSS feeds at break neck speeds that I want to hear from you!
- Sunny Lam
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