Ok, so maybe I’m just too trusting, but the having all your feeds inside Outlook2007 seemed like the smart thing to do. All the incoming data in one place. Seems sensible at first, no?
Well, it is, kind of, until you need anything more than the simple management tools that come with a right click of the mouse. I had over a hundred feeds, some dead, some very much alive, and having to delete them one by one with a right click is a touch annoying, when the tree view that the feeds live in doesn’t support multiple selection.
Even more annoying is the lack of export for the folder structure I had created to bring some kind of order to the chaos. I exported the feeds to OPML, and then imported them on my laptop, and to my dismay, all I ended up with was a flat list of feeds.
So , given the lack of management tools for even the simple operations like deleting more than one feed at a time, I’m opting for a stand alone reader. A little more inconvenient maybe, but more usable, almost certainly.
So, onto the web, and it seems like I’m spoiled for choice! After trying and abandoning Google reader, I decided that i really need a client based application rather than something that’s hosted. I simply can’t get on with the web interface for these things, I really do like my right mouse button for context, something which is mostly lost when you switch to a web based solution. Although you can access your feeds from anywhere, there are other solutions that provide this , so that’s no real loss.
Eventually it boils down to a couple of client choices, I’m sure there are more clients available but i don’t want to spend 3 days choosing the next tool! So the two clients I’ve tested are FeedDemon and SharpReader, both are listed high in the search results, and both have won various magazine awards, so i think they’re a pretty safe bet for quality, stability and usability.
After a couple of hours use playing with both, I think FeedDemon has the edge. It feels more polished and its definitely the more feature rich of the two clients. Also , signing up for a free NewsGator account means that you can synchronise your feeds between clients!
So FeedDemon it is then. I’ll post more when i’ve lived with it for a few days !