RSS Readers: NewsGator and BlogBridge
There are a number of feed readers available. For quite a while I used Bloglines, but recently I was disappointed that Bloglines was unable to recognise my identifying email address that had worked perfectly well a year or more ago. So I can’t access my Bloglines account now to know what feeds I had there.
Over the past twelve months or so I have probably used NewsGator Online more than other readers. I like it and have recommended it to others. But lately I’ve been wondering if there was a reader I might find more helpful. I was aware of BlogBridge but not really sure what it did. Having looked at it more closely over the past couple of days, I am so far quite impressed.
I may not have explored NewsGator enough to do a legitimate comparison, but on a very subjective basis I’ve found BlogBridge more immediately usable than NewsGator, in terms of collecting various feeds and setting them up in different groups, or “Guides” to use the BlogBridge terminology.
Another thing I like about BlogBridge is that they provide various lists of leading blogs to help set up a “guide” immediately. I still haven’t figured out how to import/export OPML files with BlogBridge and I am concerned to be able to do that. The online manual could be more immediately helpful on that.
I’ve been having difficulties exporting an OPML file from NewsGator: they have been very prompt in suggesting solutions, but so far to no avail.
Tags: BlogBridge, Bloglines, feed-reader, feeds, NewsGator, OPML, RSSRelated Stories
POSTED IN: General
4 opinions for RSS Readers: NewsGator and BlogBridge
Pito Salas
Jan 20, 2007 at 10:22 am
Hi, my name is Pito Salas, one of the lead guys behind BlogBridge. I am glad you like BlogBridge. BB has extensive support of OPML so whatever you are trying to do is probably possible. Here are some pointers:
- to import your old subscriptions that are stored in an OPML file, use Guide/Import.
- If there’s a URL somewhere that has an OPML that you want to dynamically subscribe to, use Guide/Subscribe to Reading List. Dynamic means that BB periodically re-checks that OPML and if it’s changed it will update the corresponding Guide within BB. (Note that you can ask to be prompted before that happens.)
- If you yourself want to share your Guide with the world in the form of a Reading List, refer to Guide/Properties/Publishing. In a few clicks you can have your own URL on our server with your Guide’s collection shared in the form of an OPML so others can benefit from it.
(Actually there are more OPML related things but these hopefully will get you going.)
Best,
Pito
Des Walsh
Jan 21, 2007 at 4:59 pm
Thanks Pito
There is a url for the OPML of my Newsgator feeds, but for some reason which has Newsgator support, as well as me, baffled, the URL for my OPML there won’t work.
Pito Salas
Jan 21, 2007 at 5:01 pm
If you dont mind sending it to us, we will investigate it for you. Thanks!
Business and Blogging - More on Feed Readers
Jan 21, 2007 at 5:56 pm
[…] There are many feed readers available, some web-based, some for the desktop. I make no claim to know which is best or even to be able to make detailed comparisons. For a while now I’ve been recommending either Bloglines or NewsGator Online. I was a bit miffed when I found that Bloglines would not recognise the email address I’ve used there for ages and when I decided to check out the OPML generation function on NewsGator I found it would not work for me. So I decided, as posted here, to install BlogBridge. I’ve also signed up for Rojo but have not installed any feeds there yet. […]
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