FeedDemon RSS News Reader
Less than a month ago I switched from Google Reader to Newzie mainly because I wanted to use a system that would work independently from the web browser. Newzie looked really great and fast but it turned out that it had a few quirks that made me look for alternatives. The main problem was that it slowed down the system whenever it updated the RSS feeds. It was also problematic that the developers seemed to have stopped development which was more of a security concern at that time because feeds and everything related to them were working fine.
FeedDemon was a RSS news reader that many people seemed to recommend. Rarst was one of them and he made me take a closer look at the software. The RSS news feeds were exported to OPML format in Newzie so that I could import them in the reader if OPML import was supported.
FeedDemon is the Windows software of the Newsgator family of products. There are also clients for Macs, mobile devices and even an online reader (that is synced with the local feed reader) for those who want to use both an offline and online product.
It was possible to import the opml feed into FeedDemon. The program began to update the feeds immediately. The first thing that users will notice is the speed of the program. It is very responsive and does not produce slowdowns even when updating feeds.
Feeds can be sorted and displayed in numerous ways. It is for example possible to display only the titles of the latest feeds, or to display summaries or full posts if that is desired. Next to each title are information about the data and site that published the news and options to mark it read, flag or delete it, to send it to someone, add it to clippings or see who is linking to the article.
A click on the title can open the url in the default browser. This has to be changed in the options as the default display mode is in FeedDemon itself. Keyboard shortcuts such as [CTRK M] which marks all posts on the active page read speed up the work further.
All elements of the feed reader have been streamlined to be fast and efficient. Here are just a few examples of features that make FeedDemon an excellent feed reader:
- Caching: Download contents for offline reading
- Panic Button: The Panic button can be used to mark older feeds as read if you are really lagging behind.
- Reports: Will display feeds with errors, most popular feeds, popular topics (by analysing similar topics in the subscriptions or by using the online account), feeds that have not been updated for a while.
FeedDemon is the most responsive feed reader that I have worked with (and I had my share of offline and online RSS readers). It is fast, offers options to sort the feeds after my liking and integrates nicely with the default web browser.
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I use both GReader and FD. FD is absolutely the best between the desktop feed client.
Also, try GreatNews. It’s been around for some time.
@Martin: Oops! Sorry!
Google Reader rocks!
I personally use the iPhone version of the reader, since it is uncluttered, beautiful and the images don’t get loaded unless I open the item.
Kaushik: I did but only in one sentence
Rarst: This is really a great app. Love the speed.
JoJo: I kept Google Reader open all the time as I do with my desktop readers. What I did not like was that I was logged in all other Google Services as well, e.g. search. Then there are security concerns which might be unfounded but since I run Google Adsense and Gmail as well I did not want to take any risks.
Last reason, I could display both the web browser and the desktop feed reader next to each other instead of switching tabs.
@Jojo
Why are you using a browser based again, instead of desktop reader? :)
Why are you using a desktop reader again, instead of a browser based variation?
@Martin
Glad you liked it, I was very impressed with app myself so that I ended up that more than positive review. :)
@Kaushik
Actually sync is mentioned in the post. Third paragraph.
You failed to metion one important feature – integration with the online Newsgator feed reader. So you get all the advantage of an online feed reader on the desktop.
I have been using FeedDemon since it became free. It’s the best feed reader I have ever used.