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Blog under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
Feb
6
(2007)
Trying Google Reader Again
Filed under: Uncategorized. Tags: aggregator, blogbridge, google, google reader, rss.
I've been a raving, drooling BlogBridge fanboy for some time now. It's the best darned desktop aggregator I've used. That hasn't changed.
But, with all of the cool kids using Google Reader, I decided it's time to really give it a chance again. I dropped it like it's hot the last time I tried it because it doesn't have a feed star rating system, nor smart feeds. But, it's got a pretty flexible feed tagging system, which can be easily cajoled into performing these duties.
So, I just imported my feeds from BlogBridge to Google Reader via OPML, and I'll try giving it a shot for a week or so. I'm liking it after just a few minutes, but I'm not sure I can really switch away from BlogBridge.
I added a new tag called "5-stars" and tagged a bunch of feeds with it. By viewing new items in that tag, I can simulate the 5-star smart feed in BlogBridge. I can add 4-stars and 3-stars etc… as needed. Here's what my 5-stars tag looks like right now:
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I'll keep trying it out for a week or so, and if I'm still using it then, I'll likely stick with it. So far, the single biggest reason to move to Google Reader is that it can actually parse the feed from OLDaily, which I've been missing for a couple of months now (BlogBridge has had trouble dealing with some of the slightly off-spec portions of that feed, but GR chews through it without complaining).
Update: Firefox has locked up on me twice now, forcing me to restart it. Safari is downright jittery when using Google Reader, so I'll have to deal with it. On the up side, synchronicity dropped this guide to "Getting Good with Google Reader" into my reader…
How do you tag feeds? I was just trying Google Reader earlier today and because I use a similar ranking system, BlogBridge has been excellent for me. But I could only seem to tag items. The “folders” are tags, I guess, but having to physically drag feeds to “tag” them is a, well, drag
I still can’t deal with Google Reader’s lack of search/smart feeds/etc…
Hey D’Arcy, there’s new exciting stuff coming! Have you been following:
http://www.blogbridge.com/2007/02/06/my-blogbridge-whats-going-on/
http://www.blogbridge.com/2007/01/22/blogbridge-pub-service-posting-to-multiple-blogs/
And what’s the problem with OLDaily, we will have to fix that
Anyway, thanks for your support all along!
– Pito
Chris – when viewing a Feed in GR, you can use the dropdown menu at the top right to add it to “folders” (which are really just tags). There’s also a way to add a new Folder/tag, and feeds can belong to multiple tags/folders so it’s handy for organization. BB has a smartfeed that lets you query by properties of the feed, providing the tag-like functionality there.
Pito – I’m still a BlogBridge fanboy
Love it. By far the best desktop reader. I just wanted to try out Google Reader again to see how far it’s come, and the only way to really do that is through immersion…
and of course, now that I mention that OLDaily hasn’t been working for me, it decides to validate as proper RSS. I should have mentioned something earlier, so it would decide to start working again
It had been barfing on missing GUIDs and unescaped characters previously.
Regarding the Firefox freeze issues that you saw, we just pushed a small bugfix release yesterday evening that fixes a similar-sounding issue. Please let us know if you still experience freezes.
Mihai Parparita
Google Reader Engineer
Mihai, thanks for the update. It definitely seemed more stable this morning, chewing through some very long sets of items (which is what caused Firefox to bork twice yesterday).
I had discovered that but I think you came across the same thing I did– GR just doesn’t really understand the idea of tags for feeds in a way that is useful– nothing like the stars in BB. I am totally hooked on BB, abandoning even my faithful (and paid for) FeedDemon. I still miss a few things in FD, but it seems likely they will be addressed relatively soon.
The recent BlogBridge blog announcements about the BB service enhancements, re-blogging, and more publishing features are exciting!