Trying Out Google Reader

I started reading blogs steady back around 2002-2003, and started my own in 2004. Since I started reading blogs, I have went through the gamut of readers…

First I started with SharpReader for a while, a fat client, that was OK..but a lot of feeds had errors..

I then started using RSS Bandit, which was good, but slow sometimes for the amount of feeds I had.

I then found Newsgator. Most people use Newsgator for just the online reader, but it is so much more. What it really is, is a online store for your feeds (OPML) that you can use between all their different clients, even the newest builds of RSS Bandit support the Newsgator sync framework.

I used Newsgator Inbox for a while, with Outlook, then I used Newsgator Online for a while, I tried their mobile version and Media Center editions, then I tried Feed Demon, which really rocks. And since my feeds are sync’d between all these platforms, when I read one here, it is marked read there, etc. Even on my mac I tried News Net Wire… and now they have an iPhone interface as well.

Since I took the plunge to GAFYD, and I am using Gmail, etc, I decided to try Google Reader….A few WTF’s….

One of the worst things is, I can’t sync my Newsgator feed with Google Reader. This is because Goog Reader has no or a crappy API, and Newsgator doesnt want to do anything to sync with them or whatever, just sucks though..

The other thing I have found, is that feeds don’t update fast enough. I read in the help if a feed doesnt have a lot of subs, then it wont update very often, and other feeds will update about once an hour. I feel sometimes like I am missing some stuff, especially on the weekend where I try to keep my feeds read up to date..

The sharing and starring is good, I will see how that works as I go, as they just added sharing via Google Talk as well..

One thing though to add to all of this is, I can’t use my GAFYD account with google reader, I had to sign up for ANOTHER Google account using my same email/password to kind of mimic it using the same account, just wacked…another weird thing with GAFYD…

Anyways, at this point I don’t see a lot of things that make the bloggers oooh and ahh over Google Reader compared to Newsgator… The trends are nice, but it isnt mind blowing… we will see…