BlogBridge, my most favoritest RSS aggregator app, was bumped to version 3.0 this week. Lots and lots of small improvements, but most of the big changes are under the hood. Performance rocks (it totally doesn’t feel like a Java app – it feels like any other native application), and things like syncing feeds and preferences with the BlogBridge service (for accessing from other machines, or publishing guides as OPML, or just as backup) is nearly instantaneous.
It’s also got support for notifications – using Growl on MacOSX and whatevertheheck Windows uses on that side of the fence. Handy. Now… If only they’d get that open-link-in-background-browser-window thing working, so my browser wouldn’t pop to the front every time I open a link…
I totally recommend BlogBridge to anyone looking for a way to easily/effectively manage a LOT of RSS feeds. I’d simply drown under my subscriptions without things like star ratings and smart feeds. And the built-in OPML/reading-list feature is simply killer.
They’ve released regular installer versions for MacOSX and Windows, as well as versions for Linux and Java WebStart (if you use the WebStart version, it can auto-update for you).
If you’ve already used BlogBridge, be sure to sync all of your guides with the (free) BlogBridge service before upgrading, as they’ve optimized the local database file format, which may blow away your previous database. Syncing seems quite bulletproof, so it’s a good habit to get into anyway…
I’m toying with the idea of doing a screencast to show just how quickly I can check all of my feeds. I can seriously check all 400+ feeds in about 10 minutes (or less).
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The only thing that’s missing is the tray notification, otherwise its a rock solid product. They do have plans to implemented it and last I heard they were researching a good cross-platform way of doing it.
Hi D'Arcy,
I just wondered how you integrate BlogBridge into your overall publishing workflow. Do you normally use any desktop client like MarsEdit or Ecto? … so far I have not seen any feature in BlogBridge that seems to indicate a link to any Ediing client. Am I missing something?
cheers,
Sebastian
I just use the web interface for Drupal (and previously, in WordPress). I’m not a huge fan of the desktop client apps – they all have to work too generically to be really useful to me.
You can tag any post in Blogbridge, and it can add those tags to your del.icio.us account, but even that i hardly use…
Sami – it’s added in 3.0 – supposedly using the standard Windows tray notification thingamajiggy…
Heh, I was afraid I was wrong, thank you kemosabe! It seems to be the case in terms of notification in version 3.0, I was hoping for a minimize to tray in addition which still doesn’t seem to exist, but notification is good!