Am I the last blogger to make the switch to Google Reader from Bloglines? Here are the three key features that Google has implemented that made me switch:
- Google Reader handles read/unread entries much better. I can look at the latest entries on a blog with a lot of posts and only mark as read the entries that I’ve actually seen. How many times have you looked at the Lifehacker feed in Bloglines, only gotten through five entries, and lost the “newness” of the remaining unread entries? That’s happened to me quite often.
- Google Reader’s “star system” helps keep track of things that I need to act on. Whether it’s a blog post I want to write, an email I want to send a friend, or a job I want to apply for, stars in Google Reader become a sort of a feed entry to do list for me.
- Google Reader’s home page calls my attention to things I might have missed. I’m not sure if it tracks change in entry-creation velocity on my feeds, or if it watches what I have clicked on previously, but the home page surprises me at least once a day.
I hope my change over benefits Operation Gadget readers in terms of stronger, more relevant, and timely articles.
If you are still using Bloglines or any other feed reader, you owe it to youself to give Google Reader a try for a few days. You may find it to be as much of an improvement as I did.