Before this week, I had never used Bloglines or Google Reader, so here are my bullets about each:
Bloglines (+)
- Setup was pretty easy, after I got over the default "Blog" tab, which I thought might mean "subscribe to blogs," but really meant "set up a Bloglines blog" (don't worry, I stopped the setup in time).
- Feed subscriptions arranged themselves alphabetically, which I like. I did check out the "Edit" feature, where I can make changes to this.
- I dragged a "Sub with Bloglines" button onto my Firefox bookmark bar (I think that's what it's called). Whenever I'm looking at a blog I like, I click to button to subscribe. :-)
- I like the options for customizing the search feature (on the right side of the screen), where I can search "My Feeds" for a search term like "bloglines" and see all the posts from my feeds on that topic. Very cool! You can also exclude your feeds, search the web, etc. This is my favorite Bloglines feature.
Bloglines (-)
- I completely agree with Jenna when she says "Bloglines was cumbersome to set up". Too many options to (in my case) de-select when you enter the URL.
- I had a hard time finding where to login from the Bloglines main page. I can't understand why they don't have an "Already a member, sign in" link right in the giant "Register for your Free Account" window.
- I don't like having to go to Bloglines to look at my feeds. I'm lazy! I looked at all the feed options, basic settings, etc., and I can't find a way to make Bloglines send me an e-mail when I have new feeds (if anyone knows how to do this, please let me know).
Google Reader (+)
- Easy to set up, especially if you use a lot of other Google products (which I do).
- Discovered that any blogs I was already following in blogger were already added to my feed subscription list. Sweet!
- Can be added to my iGoogle home page, saving me a "trip" to Google Reader every day. Awesome!
Google Reader (-)
- When I subscribed to SCILS598Announce, I got a huge list of entries. I had to fiddle around with the settings to only show new posts (unlike Bloglines, which defaults to the new post only setting).
- I don't like all the trends, etc. (that I can't get rid of). It reminds me that Google keeps track of everything I'm doing, which I don't like.
Bloglines has some great features, especially the search, but having to go there every day is a deal-breaker for me. I definitely see myself adding Google Reader to my "real" iGoogle home page as a lazy way to keep track of what I'm interested in.
3 comments:
I find Google Reader to be the better of the two...the conclusion I believe you reached...simply because it is associated with my Google homepage. One trip with maximum returns, hooray. I also found bloglines to be cumbersome to set up, particularly the part where you fill in your email, are able to do things, and then must still activate through your email account. Jeez Louise.
I particularly agree with your comment about the left options in Google Reader that we can't get rid of, like trends. I like this aggregator better than Bloglines, but it's good to take note of its faults. Even Google isn't perfect, thank goodness. =P
I too am a NOOB to blog readers. This is a very good list, I think you hit all the magor points. Overall I think I like Google reader better. As you say, one stop shoping.
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