RSS feeds are becoming more common these days, and are the most popular form of quick information as well as easy access to your favorite topics and articles. Of course, many people know of feed readers such as Google Reader and Bloglines but I have found a few other feed readers that may just be as good. Here they are (in no particular order):
1. NewsBeet - NewsBeet is what RSS feeders seem to be becoming like recently. A mix of RSS feeds, social networking, and news. As stated on their website: “RSS + Social Media + You”. If you register, you are able to create a “Beet” that includes a subdomain with your RSS feeds, as well as related material on the page, popular stories, etc.
2. Matoumba - Matoumba is an neat public, customizable feed reader. It allows for users to view a large amount of different feeds related to the topic they enjoy. Right when you start you are allowed to pick different topics and certain popular feeds in that category to your profile. Of course, you may register an account and access your feeds anywhere online. You may search for a certain term or RSS feed and add it to “My Subscriptions.” You may also go to the “Front News” and find what is currently “popular.”
3.FeedShow - FeedShow is less of a visual RSS reader and more of a classic one. It encompasses many different features, of which include the option to convert the RSS feed into a PDF file, information about the feed, stats, email the article, save it to your computer, increase text size, or Del.icio.us it.
4. Feedkiller - Feedkiller is another basic, non-social networking, personal RSS feed sites. Users are allowed to create a name for their feed, include the links to the feeds that you want in your new RSS feed and the number of stories you want to include.
5. ReadBurner - ReadBurner is another public feed / social networking website. It is more similar to Del.icio.us or Digg than anything though. Users are allowed to view “Top Stories” with subcategories that include: “Web,” “Desktop,” “Mobile,” or “Apple.” You may also look in more major categories that include: “Climbing” and “New” that have the same subcategories. You can even subscribe to their RSS feed based upon the category you are in.
6. Trawlr - Trawlr is another web based RSS feed reader that includes numerous features. Features include: a public page, favorited articles, favorite feeds, filter options, subscriptions, the ability to import an OPLM file, search, and tags.
When you sign up for an account you are given RSS feeds for “All Items,” “Favorite Feeds,” “Your Favorite Items,” and “Your Shared Items.” One other neat feature is the option to create a “Lifestream.” It adds other social networking sites, other RSS feeds (of course), and your own blog.
7. Voyage - Voyage is a new method of a visual RSS reader.
It adds a revision of a 3D timeline to RSS entries that allows users to scroll (if you have a mouse) throughout the timeline and click on each of the entries that you enjoy.
I highly recommend you try it out.
8. Toluu - Toluu is similar to Newsbeet. It gives the user a URL on their website (e.g. toluu.com/username) and mixes feed reading with social networking. It is currently in BETA, so when you sign up you are required to wait a while, yet it is a quick sign up.
When you sign up you are given the option to add friends, share feeds, add your own feeds, add a picture, export feeds, find matches of other people with similar feeds, the option to get the bookmarklet to add feeds to Toluu when you are at a site that provides an RSS feed then forwards you to add the feed to your own RSS reader, get an RSS feed for your activity, connect your Twitter account, etc. I highly recommend it.
9. Rocket Reader - Rocket Reader is another reader similar to Google Reader or Feedshow. You are given a Google Reader-like interface with options to share an article, create sections/folders, “clip” articles, email articles, and the option to add “Feed Packs,” that add multiple feeds quickly.
Which RSS feed reader do you prefer? Are you a Google Reader fan or do you prefer something a bit more “obscure”? Promote your favourite reader in the comments!
Will is a computer nerd and geek that runs his blog at Advanced Tech Solutions.
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I used to be completely addicted to My Yahoo but for the past few years I have used Google Reader and I will never leave it. Its keyboard shortcuts and shared items has ensured my permanent loyalty.
I second Mark, the keyboard shortcuts and speed features got me hooked.
I’ve been using Planetaki.com since I had heard of it earlier this year. I love its simplicity. With one click I can “preserve” something to read later. Preserved items stay near the top of my reading list, nagging me until I unmark them, which is exactly what I want my “read-laters” to do. Older items get cleared out after time, so I rarely feel like there is a backlog.
You cannot forget Wizz RSS - I believe it’s one of the most awesome RSS readers ever built - and it’s fully integrated with Firefox.
Good list, but you forgot Netvibes, iGoogle and other homepages - they’re not so much as a full-fledged RSS reader, but they can be effective for average users who simply want a list of excerpts to click through from.
Being a power user, I alternate between FeedDemon and Google Reader, though. The keyboard shortcuts and other nifty tricks on both of them are simply awesome - so much so that I cannot stick with either one of them.
I’ve been using JetBrains Omea Reader since last few months and found to be very useful and effective.
I’m using newsgator, but only because it syncs with feeddemon which is my desktop RSS reader. I wish I could have feeddemon sync with Google Reader, that would have been perfect…
I’m also using NewsGator+FeedDemon, and think this is a perfect solution when you want to have all feeds on your home computer and laptop but sometimes need to have acces to them from another place.
Wondering why didn’t author include NewsGator+FeedDemon chain in the list.
I tried Wizz in Firefox but didn’t care for it. I tried Google Reader but it seemed too limited. I settled on NewsFox and it does everything I want it to do. It does seem to cause FF to crash, but I’m not sure about this yet. I have about 260 news sources in it so far….
A question…
anyone know of any (online) reader that will show more than 200 entries at a time from a SINGLE feed?? everyone i tried a while back seemed to limit it to 200 max and i have a couple of feeds that easily pass that amount in half a day’s time. thanks.
Google reader will do that, you just click “Show all 1000+ items” (or however many) at the top left of the feed after you navigate to it. It loads more when you scroll down to the bottom, but it’s pretty fast.
Personally I use Google Reader because I think with it’s new Notes feature it has more potential than any other reader out there, and hopefully the google team can deliver on that potential.
It’s so awesome that so far almost all commenters have shared different favorite RSS readers. It just shows the diversity of this side of the web very well.
I can vouch for Sumesh in the Feed Demon area, but I mostly use Google Reader.
[...] as Google Reader and Bloglines but I have found a few other feed readers that may just be as good.read more | digg [...]
I am surprised nobody has mention Feedly yet. Ok it has only been out for a week and it is an extension for Firefox3 but it has changed how I read RSS. It has replaced Newsgator and my Feed Demon/Net News Wire combo and I am not going back. The social side of recommendations via Google Reader and friends on other social networks (Twitter and FriendFeed) make it.
netnewswire/feeddemon/newsgator for me. i have been using toluu a bit recently and have enjoyed being turned onto new site feeds, as a result of its more “social” approach to this subject