Bloglines has added three new features to its RSS reading service.
First up is the ability to save posts including text and graphics from within Bloglines to a “Saved” folder. This allows users to have quick access to previously read posts at a later date.
“Photo Widget” provides large thumbnails of images from Flickr feeds; previously only a text description was available.
Last, but certainly not least is the blog view function. The allows users to switch into a 3-pane view that shows the full post on the actual blog, as opposed to just a feed only version of it. What this means is that you can now view a full post within Bloglines where only a part-text feed is offered, but perhaps more impressively users will be able to interact with the blog as well, for example read comments and see other elements of the site, including ads.
The new Bloglines was launched in August and since that time Bloglines has continued to roll out improvements and new features, including support for OpenID (with APML and oAuth support coming). Bloglines has lost its once dominant lead in the RSS Reader market, mostly to Google, but with continuing feature additions such as these it offers an appealing product that may well be worth another look for those who have left, or for those who have never tried Bloglines before.
“more impressively users will be able to interact with the blog as well, for example read comments and see other elements of the site, including ads”
This may have a negative impact on the pageviews number of the websites…with ajax becoming more popular we need a better matrix to replace the pageview number.
Have fun catching up with Google Reader.. in fact, why not give users some intelligent Windows desktop clients and/or plug-in tools.. proven by NewsGator… /ac.
Ah, bloglines always keeps me switching from Google Reader for a bit, but not for long. Still think Greader takes the win.
This is really cool…
What else is kool….
apps.facebook.com/callgreetings
http://www.LimeAll.com
I use Google reader. It works great.
Don/ Evan
I’d find it hard to switch back myself (I switched to Google Reader from Bloglines early this year)…but to give Bloglines credit, they continue to add new features that make it more appealing than it was before.
“More impressively”…?
So bloglines is putting 3rd party content in iFrames without consent now? This is what Myspace did in Myspace News and people on this site went apeshit.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007.....h-results/
Lets hope the Bloglines items aren’t indexable…
@yongfook: Speaking as a Bloglines employee, what is going on here is completely different than the MySpace News Fiasco.
None of the inline IFrame content is exposed to crawlers or even ‘external’ users.
This is specific to you, the single user. When you are reading a comic feed for example that doesn’t include the image inline, you can change to this mode, and see the comic in its full context (including any advertisements that the publisher adds).
Im not very sure about the way Bloglines shows folders. With Google Reader, it lists out the entire content of the folder (e.g. 15 feeds) as a list of post titles. But with Bloglines, you get the Start Page interface showing each feed separately. I prefer the big list a la Google Reader. Likewise the new Bloglines view is a little awkward when dealing with folders.
Parul
http://www.bhopu.com
Bloglines seems great, but as Don, Evan and Duncan, I also stick to Google Reader.
Google Reader, even allows me to publish the latests posts in my own site:
http://tech-talk.biz/blogs
Paul > thanks for the clarification, I figured it might not be indexable. I wonder though if there is still an opt-in issue that needs to be worked out here though? If I’m a content publisher, whilst I wouldn’t necessarily be pissed off with people viewing a “preview” of the site in bloglines, the *best* outcome is the user clicking through to me - because of course I may have other goals in mind for the user beyond simply reading one article (sign up for a promotion, buy a t-shirt etc) and I wonder how having the site crammed into a preview iFrame affects a user’s propensity to follow through to these secondary goals…
The preview feature is good for consumers of content, but a bit of a grey area for publishers, I think.
Nice faetures would lead to more enhanced experiance for users.
http://tekno-world.blogspot.com
I like the feature that about to come for “Photo Widget” from Flickr feeds, interesting!
I’ve used Bloglines for maybe 2 years or so. Lately, the service has not been very reliable. Seems to have a problem every week or so where the database went south or feeds aren’t showing up or the “plumber” is doing maintenance. They never post an explanation as to what is going on, don’t respond to posts on their forums and don’t respond to email queries. I’m getting annoyed.
Readers.. tricky biz.. particularly the consumer side.. as evidenced by the
Pluck Reader’s shutdown a year ago.. that said, the Pluck reader (desktop
plugins) was overly overloaded with fancy features.. unfortunately lacking
a way to monetize.. Google Reader’s simplicity was one key winning factor.
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go check out their New Years Eve 2008 events:
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Personally, I think they should focus more on layout/design than functions. I use neither GR nor Bloglines, but tried them both - with GR you immediately know what to do and everything just works. With bloglines it’s not very functional - for instance the moment you click on a feed everything there is marked “read” versus marking “read” just feeds you actually displayed in right pane in GR. Also BL works exetremely slow for such a web1.0 interface, especially compared to GR.
Summarising: Design & performance - not features.
“What this means is that you can now view a full post within Bloglines where only a part-text feed is offered, but perhaps more impressively users will be able to interact with the blog as well, for example read comments and see other elements of the site, including ads.”
This feature was introduced in Netvibes months ago.
I’m not going back from reader to bloglines… I’m sold out to google.
keep it happening guys
Thought great work from bloglines
Funny… Google Reader fans always sound so apologetic and defensive about their choice. I’ve tried and tried to like Google Reader. After all, its Google, it’s linked to other Google options, and folks always seem so enthusiastic (and apologetic). It handled my large OPML file with ease, and is always responsive.
But after struggling with its boring interface, its strangely uncompelling presentation, and the feeling that it’s not really speeding up my journey, just making me hate reading enough that I want to quit sooner and get back to work… well, I wind up at Bloglines yet again.
When I use Bloglines, I want to read just one more feed… just one more article. Its easy, its fun, and like a good video game, it draws me in. The beta (beta.bloglines.com) is really very nice. The mobile beta still needs some help, but is getting there. Is it the interface? The colors? I don’t know, but I find that I just enjoy using Bloglines; reader doesn’t create any joy.
Bloglines isn’t perfect: its recommendations are still somewhat specious. I can’t always organize feeds or pinned articles the way I want. I want more customization in the views. But these are pretty minor nits.
If you are one of the many people who uses Google Reader but says it ruefully, perhaps now is the time to admit that you really don’t like it all that much, that it was the best at the time or the first one you tried, and see what else is out there. I suggest starting with Bloglines (though other nice ones are mentioned in this thread as well).
(Nope, no affiliation, just a loyal user for years now)
I use neither Google Reader nor Bloglines. I use YDrive. Pubilc beta soon
Bloglines was the first RSS reader that I could get my head around, and for whatever reason, Google Reader just doesn’t do it for me. So, I am pleased to see that development is continuing and excited about the new features.
They’re cool! But what about Mindity (a desktop client, their features are Bloglines-like, but the drawback is you need a .NET installed)
http://www.mindity.com
Bloglines was the first reader I ever tried and it’s the only one I use. The new features are great.
Blogs are a useful and fast way to attract traffic for our pages. The United States Army Corps of Engineers provide service to the armed forces and the general public in the engineering services and capacities for the benefit of the nation. The professional Development Support Center (PDSC) offers courses in various subjects ranging from civil engineering, architecture, project management and administrative skills.
G’Day Duncan - the new Bloglines changes are beta; results may vary if you use IE (which I do). I actually have gone back to the “classic” version oof Bloglines which does enough for me.
Oh, and it looks like you’re getting comment spam (just to state the bleeding obvious).
Cheers, Thomas
I tried BL beta now, and it’s really a whole lot better - very fast, GR like ‘read’ marking. Didn’t have much time to check out the rest - how does ’sharing’ many of you guys mentioned work (in BL)?
GR is not an option for me. Google already gets to scan my email in gmail. I don’t want to share my RSS feeds with them also.
But I do wish that Google would allow me to easily use and have multiple gmail ID’s. I guess I could manually type my ID & password in each time but I wish they would support the functionality so that wouldn’t be necessary.
Well it seems that debates are on. Here are mine 5 cents:)
I was on the bloglines since it’s very childhood and switched to snarfer about 1.5 years ago, as bloglines was idle. During this time I’ve tried Google Reader, Newsgator, and whole bunch of others, and nothing seemed to be quite right. Then finally this August we’ve got to try new Bloglines Beta. It worked quite well for me with the start page and nice better cleaner interface. Also we got saving folder now for all the stuff we read.
Btw, the beta team is very agile in responsing to my suggestions. Thanks a lot.
#28, Jones:
You can set up multiple pop accounts, not only gmail - however mail is not checked frequently enough for me and the mail you send gets: [primary adress] as a [secondary address] in the “from” field - no clue what for.