The Ghost of the Desktop RSS Reader
I noticed that I’d migrated unconsciousnessly into using Google Reader as my main RSS Reader. Previously I’d used NetNewsWire Lite like many others (even occasionally using it with NewsGator Online).
There were many underlining reasons for this. First of all, NetNewsWire Lite doesn’t archive posts, so I found out that if didn’t read posts from some strangely (mis)configured feeds, they would just vanish from the app as they were removed from the RSS feed document. I don’t consider myself an internet addict, who needs to read all the feeds the instant they update, so this was a major problem as I was losing half of Freakonomic’s posts. This isn’t wasn’t a feature I was willing to pay for, as Google Reader does this even better by archiving each and every feeds each and every post. The other reason was that I’d sometimes like to access my feeds from different locations. NetNewsWire (and FeedDemon) can be used with NewsGator Online, but its interface sucks and the syncing between the website and app didn’t always go flawlessly.
The advent of Google Gears will probably make other desktop apps also irrelevant. It’s strange how even though for a long time there have been things like Java and XUL and now there’s AIR and Silverlight, they just never caught on and instead people kept hacking on with JavaScript to make a dynamic web. The downside to web apps is that the web browser UI is not good in usability sense and you’re missing out on many of the underlying OS’s frameworks – in this case it doesn’t really matter if you use any of the above mentioned platforms as they don’t unlock your OS’s special advantages but naturally try to maintain a stable cross-platform experience.
I was sure that I’m not alone with my migration pattern and tried to do some research. Unfortunately Wordpress doesn’t let us see where our RSS traffic originates from in client sense, but Netvibes (which has been mentioned here before) and Google Reader get some hits as referrers every day. So, as for desktop RSS readers, we don’t have that data. I found a poll from Read/WriteWeb, which seems to support my argument. I was surprised how many people used browsers own RSS capabilities, though. Is there are better source for information on web-based rss reader adoption? (Yes, I know)
There are similar stories on the net though. Here’s how Ades went to Google Reader, and here’s how Alex did it. I agree with Ades that it’s a major fricition-remover that so many people already use Google’s services everyday that they don’t need to login to Reader. Alex, on the other hand, sees this as a privacy issue. K-inthehouse argues that there are benefits for bloggers to use dekstop clients instead. In my opinion points 6 (individual feed refresh) and 9 (archiving) don’t matter at all on web-based readers and points 1 (labels) and 4 (grouping) are, in my opinion, pretty well achievable on web-based readers also. What I do agree is point 3 (search) and I too find it ironic that it’s not implemented in Google’s Reader. Of course, I rarely blog about other blogs (the “echo-chamber” effect) – there are other ways to put other posts on the radar, for better or worse - so maybe some people like desktop clients for that.
It looks like Brent Simmons did sell NetNewsWire at exactly the right time. It was a great achievement to develop a Mac-only RSS reader, which had the largest market share (or, more to the point, user base. so, user share?) across all platforms. I doubt this is anymore possible now even on any platform as Netvibes, Bloglines and Google Reader take on more and more people, platform-independently.
Kari has relatively few feeds he follows on a weekly-basis, so things are probably different for you. Sound off your opinion in the comments!
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Well, I don’t see it as a privacy-issue, but I also don’t like pumping all my feeds into 1 site. It feels so… boring. Reading the news is like an adventure (to me) and I like to look at what each newspaper has to say, and yes I view the perfect site as the equivalent of a newspaper.
So instead, I look at aggregators, like Slashdot, Digg, Techmeme, and Metafilter, and have editors present nicely formatted stories and comments on it. That way I get the effect of rss, packaged in a nice human package.
There are of course 9-10 blogs that I follow, via rss. And other blogs, like Dave Winer or John Gruber, who already keep their posts so short and update daily, that I can just browse to their site and know there’s (usually interesting) content there.
What can I say, I’m a particular individual when I comes to news. And I refuse to be treated like a machine also. It’s enough that my ipod and xbox catch rss-feeds.
Eh, to answer your question: I use Safari for my rss and browsing, and have the same sites loaded in a igoogle-page for holiday access.
To add some more thoughts. I don’t differentiate between rich web-content and rss-feeds. They are the same to me. Often rss-content comes from blogs, which to me are conversations. I often want to read and comment. That is why I don’t get why separate rss-readers exist, at least not on PCs (On a mobile platform with limited screen real-estate it makes perfect sense). And similarly, rss-feeds contain links to other sites.
So every-time I click on a link or what to comment it opens my browser, which is illogical. In my opinion, the prefect rss-reader integrates with the rest of the web. One reader, many channels of media. Safari or any other web-browser fits that profile for me.
If this seems like I’m whining, fine. But I hope that software designers read this blog also and design software that actually makes sense to the end-user, not just to geeks (and machines).
I used Google Reader and loved its UI. But the feeds refresh is too slow (minutes to a few hours !). Although I’m not a buzz track junkie, this issue made me move to a desktop RSS reader. You sometime miss conversations while commenting after dozen of comments (it’s hard to be heard with noise).
But I agree, desktop RSS readers aren’t made for mass market (anymore ?).
You should try Netvibes http://www.netvibes.com it is by far my favorite.
Hey Kari,
I believe it’s a shame that GOOGLE Reader doesn’t include any SEARCH feature within Google Reader.
Because of this (I sincerely think they’re making fun of their users here), I’m switching back one more time to Netvibes. Netvibes is now much faster than it has been in the past, and it’s getting better and better whilst I’ve seen no major improvement (but Gears) in Google Reader in the last 6 months.
So, just like John Wilson, I vote for Netvibes.
If you’re into RSS readers only and can actually read French, I highly recommend Olivier Ezratty’s work on RSS reader top performers. It’s all here:
http://www.oezratty.net/wordpress/2007/rss-blog-tools-update/
http://www.oezratty.net/wordpress/2006/choisir-son-lecteur-rss/
John and Jeremy,
I’ve tried Netvibes, but I’m just not into the “start page” thing. Even on the net, I’m for simple tools that do the one thing well.
Xu,
good catch on the refreshing thing. I read quite low volume feeds and rarely comment on other blogs, so I’ve never noticed that. I was wondering about how Google does their refreshing, but that delay thing never occured to me.
Vincent,
my feed browsing habits are really similar. I don’t see the point of subscribing high-volume news sites or aggregator sites. You’re too tempted just to skim the headlines and click “Mark all as read”. I prefer to browse those sites, because the experience, the “human package” as you call it, is so much more better.
You also hit a good point on the desktop RSS reader development stagnation. That’s one reason why I dropped the desktop apps, clicking through to open (yet another) browser window felt so, like, last century =)
…and Jeremy, I’m quite sure the Reader team at Google get teased about lack of search on a daily basis already. But, it’s easy to say that there should be a search. But how should it be implemented? I started to think about this and it actually gets pretty interesting pretty quick.
As we know, Google aims for simple UIs. Should the search go through your feeds or all feeds it knows? For what timespan? Should it index only the feed or the links it has (think abbreviated posts)? It actually gets a bit more complicated really quickly than what you’d originally imagine. Or maybe I just want to give Google a benefit of doubt… =)