I’m very glad for my feedreader. I use newsgator.com, which offers three different ways of reading blogs
- Online at http://newsgator.com when I want it quick, or when I just have a browser
- On PC with the (now) free FeedDemon software
- On blackberry with Newsgator Go! software
Nice thing about it is when you read a blog on any one of them, it marks it as read on the server. That means I don’t have to “re-read” the blog or mark it as read with the other methods.
I do use all three methods, and the only annoying part so far is some blogs don’t let me make comments from the blackberry, and it’s not like it’s the feedreader’s fault.
However, there is one enhancement I’d like in my blog reading, and I don’t know if any tool out there offers it yet.
That is – the ability to make a list of blogs to read made up of one blog post per blog.
There are some blogs I read where the blogger posts once a day while others blog every few days. Some blog more than once a day. I want to find a more equitable distribution method, where I at least see the most recent blog post for each blog when I decide I have time to read blogs. I don’t want to miss, for example, one of Marty’s Snowy Sundays or Scooter Sundays. At least, I don’t want to have to wade through 7 posts from one of the faithful daily bloggers before getting just one of the kinda-weekly bloggers.
Maybe it’s better explained this way: if I have time to read 25 posts, I’d rather hit 25 blogs, not just the most recent 25 blog posts from 25 blogs, because inevitably, I’ll miss someone.
So, I end up doing this manually, which means I fail. I fail because the manual way is to expand out all the blogs, click on each one and try to just read one of that blog’s posts. It’s so hard to do that. It’s like picking your favorite kid – you feel bad for not picking all of them. At least if the software provided an easy way, I wouldn’t feel so guilty.
What do you do? What do you WANT?
Easy solution – read blogs every day!
Less easy solution – take the people who blog daily like me and put them into a separate folder.
Avitable´s last blog post..Top 10 Things Your iPhone Won’t Do
Avi – I already do different folders based on “priority” – I have a Round 0, 1, 2, 3 etc for th epeople I want to make sure I read daily vs daily-if-I-can vs weekly, etc. But you’re right – if I just slept less, I could read more blogs.
You only have time to read 25 posts? Slacker.
LeSombre´s last blog post..One bullet short of a full gun (19)
LeSombre – I said “IF”
I use Newsgator exactly like you do across my home computer, my work computer, public computers, iPhone, and two laptops… and love it. I can’t imagine how I would manage all the blogs I read if I didn’t have Newsgator to coordinate it all!
That being said, I don’t like your idea very much. Because if you haven’t read my blog for seven days, you’d only see my most current entry… you’d be missing the total genius of the six other entries that came before it! Sure some other blogs are filled with total nonsense you could easily skip over… but we’re talking about BLOGOGRAPHY here… we’re talking about ME!!
Well, okay, most everything I write on my blog IS total nonsense you could skip over every day and never be any worse off… but I work hard to create that worthless nonsense, and would feel a little bad if you weren’t forced to wade through it!
Dave2´s last blog post..Bullet Sunday 135
Dave2 – I didn’t explain myself well – I still read all the blog entries, even if it’s just to skim them. But what I’m wanting is a special view so I can go into “one post per blog” mode for a few minutes to make the rounds… then later in the week when I have time, I can catch up on the unread ones.
I never miss an exciting episode of Happy Daves.
Even though I have a Google Reader account for sharing and whatnot, I strictly use FeedDemon and Newsgator as well. I feel like FeedDemon organizes things a lot better than Google Reader, which is messy.
As for your other problem? I dunno. I just go in and do that Panic Button option when I’ve gone too long without reading!
Hilly´s last blog post..Hilary Is A Boy’s Name Too…
Hilly – I’ve not thought about “sharing” – I did notice that newsgator/feeddemon has the web clippings, and that you can tag posts that are then shared out to others via an RSS feed, but I’ve never used it. Maybe I could have a widget on my blog that lists the blog posts that I really liked, giving them some attention. I really haven’t explored it beyond what I just typed.
And the panic button is just a big bag of guilt hanging there on my computer screen.
Google Reader has an “auto” sort mode which almost certainly doesn’t do what you want. But it’s an attempt. What I think it primarily does is prioritize posts from less frequent blogs over posts from more frequent blogs. Or something like that.
I do the groups thing so that blogs where I don’t want to miss something are in a group I read more often. Others, I catch up to eventually. I don’t do the “mark all read” that some people do, which means that I sometimes fall quite a bit behind. In those situations, I often don’t comment when I otherwise would have because it just doesn’t seem timely anymore.
Sometimes I’d like a sort by brevity option so that I could quickly go through all the short posts on my phone when I have a few moments and save the longer posts for when I have more time.
By the way, I use Doppler on the iPhone for offline Google Reader reading. I’m pretty satisfied with it, though it doesn’t offer the same sort options as regular Google Reader. Even so, I tend to use it even when I have a good connection — though the mobile version of Google Reader is nice enough.
Ren´s last blog post..3rd Annual Friends Bed-n-Brew Bike Ride
Ren – great idea on the “give me a short posts mode”. Really, if it were more intelligent of a tool, I’d be able to make filters like “show me one blog post from each of [x] blogs, but only ones without video and/or audio”.
And I’d want it to be able to read me the posts so I could listen to them while I drive or do other work. then I’d want to compose my audio comment, but have it transcribed into a text comment, then shown to me for approval, and then publish it.
We should write software.
Oh wait, you do.
It sounds like I need to re-evaluate how I read blogs on my feeder. I use Google Reader because I can use it from any machine I log into, my Treo and my wife’s iPod touch.
I have all of my blogs alphabetically sorted (i sort them manually) and then I either hit them alphabetically or I pick and choose which blogs to read. Which is why if it’s been a few blog posts since I last commented, you’ll see several comments in a row from me on multiple blog posts.
I would like to change the way I read since I’m sure I’m missing a few good posts here and there. But I want to continue to use Google Reader.
But I really should check out this Newsgator, just to see what I’m missing.
And thanks for reading my blog and Dave2′s blog. It’s good to know your feed reader ensures you are not missing a single episode of Scooter Sunday (or Snowy Sunday, depending on the season).
martymankins´s last blog post..Scooter Sunday – Season 2 Ep. 06
martymankins – you’re very welcome. re: readers, I haven’t tried Google Reader, but that’s mainly because I know of know desktop/laptop program, and I don’t just want web-based feed-reading. Within the groups I have set up, my blogs are also alphabetical, which is why Avitable, Banal Leakage, Blogography get a lot of attention
Another alphabetically sorted blog reader. Nice.
martymankins´s last blog post..Scooter Sunday – Season 2 Ep. 06
Obama wants you to feel guilty!
Ha
I don’t feel guilty. It’s a waste of my time.
That said, I’ll cry if you don’t visit ME!
Sybil Law´s last blog post..Headache
Sybil – since you’re one of those who only post once a week or so, I don’t seem so untimely in my comments!
Gasp! This explains a lot.
Every day you are missing from the Jannaverse is a day when I curl up into a little ball and eat chocolate ice cream until my heart stops hurting.
So, actually, everything works out in the end.
I especially like Haagen Dasz.
.-= Janna´s last blog ..Various Thoughts =-.