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The daddy of RSS readers makes a comeback

Posted 14 September 2007 at 8:20AM by Simon Dickson in Website development

RSS changed my life, and it's a source of continuing amazement to me that it hasn't become an integral part of everyone's web experience. For those who haven't yet encountered it, RSS is basically an ultra-efficient way to stay up-to-date with the new material on your favourite websites. RSS feeds are coded in computer-friendly XML, meaning you can write software and scripts to do lots of things with them. An email-style desktop program? Messenger-style pop-up alerts? Widgets in your monitor's sidebar? Personalised web homepage? - Yes, yes, yes, yes, and more. You get what you want, more or less however you want it. What's not to love?

As we all start to access the internet from numerous locations - the office, the laptop, the mobile, and at home - the online RSS readers really come into their own. Like web-based email, it means you don't have to worry about sync'ing your list of favourites, or keeping track of which items you have or haven't read. In the old days, the clear leader was a site called Bloglines: a bit ugly, a bit clunky, but it worked really well. Then Google came along. And in the same way Gmail made Hotmail suddenly look outdated, users in their droves abandoned poor old Bloglines, in favour of the shiny new Google Reader.

I have to say, I wasn't one of them. Bloglines did what I wanted, and I'd become used to working with (or around) its foibles. So it's with mixed emotions that I note the arrival of a beta version of the new Bloglines. They've clearly tried to stay true to the spirit of the old product, whilst taking inspiration (if you know what I mean) from Google's product. It looks a lot prettier, with cooler colours and a new Outlook-style 'three pane view'. There's a useful new 'start page' for an instant view of your favourite feeds. And it uses a Google-style method to automatically detect if you've 'read' an item or not.

But that's my problem. For all its functionality, I only ever use one button in the current Bloglines interface: the button which shows all unread items, sorted by source, and marks everything automatically as read. If RSS is all about efficiency, it couldn't get any more efficient than this. I can 'page down' through news from over 100 sources, and if something interesting catches my eye, I'll stop to look at it. The new Bloglines interface removes the 'view all' button, and only marks items as read if I click (and linger) on them. To be honest, if I'd wanted something that worked like Google Reader, I'd have switched to Google Reader.

Don't get me wrong, it's good to see innovation over at Bloglines, after a lengthy period of apparent stagnation. Plus of course, it's a public beta trial, allowing them to solicit and - hopefully - act on public feedback. So here's some feedback for the Bloglines team: by all means go for a makeover, but don't lose sight of what made you great in the first place.

Tags: bloglines, google reader, rss

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