Gina Trapani has posted a thorough breakdown of what makes Google Reader superior to Bloglines at LifeHacker. It's a must-read if you're a current Bloglines user and thinking of switching, or someone who hasn't used a web based RSS reader and is trying to understand what all the hype is about.
After reading Trapani's article, I could see why Google Reader is a good choice for her. It also inspired me to give Google Reader another look after being unimpressed with the initial launch of the service months ago. It turns out that Google Reader still isn't where I need it to be based on how I use RSS aggregators. The biggest shortcoming is a lack of mobile support, which is something I'm sure Google will get around to addressing. Until they do, I'll stick with Bloglines. Here are seven peeves I have with Google Reader as it exists today. Some contradict Trapani's post, which goes to show that personal preference plays a big role in picking an appropriate RSS aggregator.
My Top-7 Google Reader Peeves
1. No mobile version. I want to be able to read my feeds wherever I am. It's a great way to kill time in line at the grocery store, sitting on a bench outside a dressing room, or while driving (well, maybe not while driving). If I can't get mobile support, I may as well use a client based RSS aggregator. [Update: an asute Technology Evangelist reader has pointed out that Google Reader does, in fact, have a mobile version:
http://www.google.com/reader/m
Unfortunately, it uses the same "River of News" formatting I talk about is #6 below.]
2. Can only see 20 stories at a time. If I click into a category with 100 stories, I expect 100 stories. In fact, there are times when I'd like many more than 100 stories, like before I board an airplane so I can catch up on the flight. At times like that, I'll often click to view every unread story, then save the resulting list as a PDF for in-flight Internet free consumption. Twenty stories wouldn't last me long.
3. I have to scroll to see what I can alread see. Does that sentence make sense? Check out the screen shot below. Three stories from a Minneapolis newspaper are displayed in their entirety. Yet Google Reader thinks I can only see the first of the three, so if I click away from this category the bottom two stories will still be marked unread. To "read" the other two, I need to click the Next Item button at the bottom of the page or the Mark All as Read button at the top. That's more work than I want to do.
I understand the logic behind Google scripting. They're trying to prevent people from accidentally marking stories as read that they never saw. But this glitch drives me nuts.
4. It uses the same login at Gmail. When I leave my computer, I generally feel comfortable leaving my RSS aggregator open, but wouldn't do the same with my email. If I log out of email, I also get logged out of Google Reader (and any other Google property I'm logged into, which is a topic for another post). What's meant to be a convenience actually inconveniences me.
5. It's slow. I'm getting tired of staring at the bubbling beaker that displays while Google fetches my feeds after I click on a category along the left column. For example, clicking on a folder containing seven feeds took 14 seconds on bubbling beaker nothingness before displaying results while Bloglines provided results on the same feed in 3 seconds.
6. It doesn't differentiate between news sources. Clicking into a category with multiple feeds delivers a list of stories from the feeds subscribed to within that category. However, Google Reader does a poor job of signifying which feed you're reading. Context matters. I want to know WHO I'm reading before I read something. Notice in the screen shot below that the first story is from City Pages, the second and third are from MNSpeak.com, and the fourth (cut off) is from the Twin Cities Daily Planet.
Since context matters to me, I want to know the source before I read the headline like Blogline does it:
With Bloglines, I know WHO I'm reading before I read. That's my preferred work flow. It looks like Google Reader assumes I'd like to read every entry in a category in reverse chronological order rather than grouped first by category then in reverse chronological order. That may work for some people, but that's not how I roll.
7. It shows stories I've already read. This one is easy to adjust, so not really a big deal. Once I've ready something, it should disappear unless I signal that it's still useful to me. By default, Google Reader seems to be set to "Show All" which causes previously read items to appear below unread items. I found myself re-reading previous items for some time before finding this useful link:
Clicking "show only new" made Reader behave the way I'd expect it to.
Those are my top-7 reasons I can't love Google Reader. Frankly, they lost me at "no mobile" but I trudged on assuming the mobile issue will soon be resolved.
Are you a Bloglines or Google Reader user? Why do you prefer one over the other?
