Google Reader

A few weeks ago I made the switch from my longtime feed reader, Bloglines, to Google Reader. Bloglines has been growing stagnant, their new site has been in beta for quite some time now, and I feel like there were better features in feed readers out there. I’ve got to say I have been very happy with Google Reader.

First off, I feel Google Reader (Reader) has be a better design. It’s much cleaner and laid out better than Bloglines. Bloglines gives me the same look and feel I’d get from using a site with frames. Reader also has a lot more information readily available; this info is easier to find because of the better design choices made by Google.

Reader recommends feeds to you based on what you read. It also tells you your trends- IE how many stories you’ve read, which feeds you read the most and the % of stories from each feed you read. My favorite feature of Reader, however, is the shared feeds.

Reader has a list of all my friends (from my Google Chat list) who also use Reader. If they share a particular story they like, it will show up in my reader under “Friends’ shared items.” I think this is a particularly cool features because it’s an easy way to share stories. Between this and staring items, I’m quickly moving away from using del.icio.us. If Google integrates a way to star websites not in your feed reader, I will probably drop del.icio.us all together. If there is a way to do so already, please let me know!

Finally, with Google Gears, I don’t even need to be online to use Reader, which is an awesome feature. All-in-all my experience with Reader (as with every other Google product I use) is great. I’m very glad I made the switch and can’t see myself going back to Bloglines any time soon.

UPDATE 5/6/08: It’s like Google is listening directly to me..