DISQUS

Mahendra · 1 month ago

Nice to see Techmeme Firehose at the top of that list. :)

Todd Lohenry · 1 month ago

Amen, brother -- preach it!

DGentry · 1 month ago

"I think it would be fascinating to read a business plan that involves paying Louis Gray $100,000 to stop using Google Reader."

I suspect such a business plan would have some weaknesses. You can acquire an audience and fans by building a fantastic product. Attempting instead to buy influencers to favor a product would almost certainly backfire later when news of the payout eventually got out.

[I initially left this comment at Ecademy, since the content is copied here I'll copy the comment as well.]

abacus · 1 month ago

Agree with everything you said 110%. There are currently no worthy competitors to Google Reader. Google reader to me is like a DVR/Tivo/on demand" service for information. It pulls the information I want from sources all over the world, and integrates the information for whenever and wherever I want to read it. I am addicted to it; read it a few times a week for information, inspiration, and for relaxation.

Could not give up: high speed internet? online banking?

Webomatica · 1 month ago

Heh, like these hypothetical thought experiments. Uh, I'd give up on Google reader for $25K no problem.

Now if we get into Apple products that would be a different story. Giving up on the iPhone would entail a higher price, but I could do it.

Giving up on Apple products completely - there wouldn't be a price high enough. :)

Lauren Fisher · 1 month ago

I'm with you, I wouldn't give Google reader up either! Many argue that RSS is dead thanks to Twitter, but I disagree entirely. In Reader, I have clear needs : to catch up on feeds, comment, share the stories I like and read others favourited content. Content is the one purpose there, whereas in Twitter, links are hidden within all the 'chat' and if you're not looking at it at the right time, chances are you've missed the link. I'm using Google reader more and more now, using the community tools provided and am getting more out of it than ever before.

ramiromarques · 1 month ago

Hi, Louis!
Google Reader is my first reader. I spend at least 30 m per day reading and sharing. I linked more tham 100 feeds and share at least 15 per day. It is a great device.

Dennis Hettema · 1 month ago

Agreed, no other product competes today so it makes no sense to switch. I'm just waiting for the innovators that will get people to switch or even better, give me a product that I would like to switch to and pay for. In the end, that will make all of our lives better.

lebendig · 1 month ago

I like your post very much, because we both have exactly the same opinion. Btw. I found you using feedly. If you want to try another reader interface without giving up Google Reader, I'd suggest you to try this great addon for Google Reader and Firefox. (www.feedly.com). Both work hand in hand and do it very well.

Louis Gray · 1 month ago

Martin, glad to hear you like Google Reader. I also know Feedly well,
and enjoy that product. I was the first ever to write about Feedly,
and have covered the service several times since its launch last June.
See:
Feedly Brings New Social Experience to Start Page, Leveraging RSS http://blog.louisgray.com/2008/06/feedly-brings...

lebendig · 1 month ago

Thank you for the hint, Louis. As a Feedly-beginner who installed it last week for the first time I should read your article this evening to get a better introduction.

I like most that Feedly is fast and great to post to Twitter, and if I can also manage to save my bookmarks in Diigo using Ping.fm I should integrate my opml from webanalyticsupdate.com back into my Google Reader. ;-) For me it was a reason to put these feeds onto a separate page, because my Google Reader appeared to be too "full" and slow with more than 600 feeds.

Recently I heard from a group of journalists who attended a course on better internet research. They were introduced to RSS and taught how to use the dynamic bookmarks feature and newsfox... In fact I have no idea why they still rely on these kind of solutions. ;-)

app · 1 month ago

During the month of September, I decided to give up Google Reader for a month (for free) and go back to using a desktop reader (Newzie).

It made me wonder why I ever started using Google Reader in the first place. Using the Today window, I can get through feeds so much faster in Newzie, and the bonus is I no longer have to switch readers to read feeds that require username/password for access, and it alerts me to changes on pages that don't have an RSS feed.

OK, so there is no "like" button. But since I am using the Today window instead of the internal browser, I am seeing excerpts on a hover and only clicking through to read full articles that catch my interest. It takes very little time or effort to click a bookmarklet and share it on Friendfeed, which then shares it on Twitter, Facebook, MyBlogLog, my xFruits feed, and everywhere else that's connected to those, too.

While you might not give up Google Reader for $25K, you couldn't pay me that much to start using it again.

Now what would I not give up for that much money? Probably my IRC client, xchat. I have recently found new uses for it, and am now even using it as a Twitter client, to follow and log the Twitter top 100.

I have been thinking of running a 2nd instance of it configured exclusively as a twitter client. for use with my regular account, since it can do a few nifty tricks I have not seen any other twitter client do. (if you want to know what I am talking about, send me a DM on friendfeed and I'll take you on a personal tour of some awesome magic you will love.)