The Feedly team is doing a great job at keeping us informed about what is going on behind the doors of the RSS service that was swarmed by Google Reader users looking for a new home for their daily RSS feed fix. While I personally prefer a desktop program, GreatNews if you must know, I can see the benefits that a cross-platform reader is offering. They do not really affect me that much considering that I only read feeds on my desktop PC and nowhere else, but if you like to read feeds on all of your devices, it is one of the better choices that you can make.
It is not perfect yet, and the main reason for that is a missing web version. So, if you want to use Feedly you either have to install one of the browser extensions available for Firefox, Safari or Chrome, or one of the mobile versions available for Apple iOS and Google Android devices.
The current update is only available for the desktop version of the service. Chrome users should get an automatic update to the new version while both Firefox and Safari users need to download and install the update manually from the Feedly blog post (what is up with that anyway?)
Here is what is new in the latest version of Feedly:
- The developers have fixed a login bug that forced users to login to the service regularly. According to Feedly, this should not happen anymore even if the server's are taxed to the limit.
- The title only view mode - my preferred mode of viewing RSS updates - has been improved. It now stretches across the whole width of the browser window automatically. While that is not entirely true, as you can see from the screenshot above, it is still an improvement. The title only view has also received more sharing options (while hovering over an article).
- Faster load times for the service. The developers have optimized the client code so that you should experience better performance while using the service.
- Support for folders that include [] brackets.
- Support for Hebrew and Farsi.
- Improved feed search to find feeds by URL and add them to your list of subscribed feeds.
Feedly seems dedicated to improve the service and while many users are waiting for a web-based version of it, the improvements certainly are welcome additions to the service as well. There are still things that need to be done though. Adding feeds is not really the most comfortable thing on earth right now. Options to add feeds at once without having to open the - rather useless feed discovery menu on the right - first and options to add multiple feeds at once based on a list or RSS feed urls are two features that come to mind.
I don't really follow this stuff to much, but have they said anything about an online only version? Like no need for add-ons or greasemonkey scripts to use? That's kind of a deal breaker for me otherwise, and are there any good online only RSS readers out there?
Eli no word on that. I think they are shooting themselves in the foot if they do not work on it and release it in the near future.
And thank you, Martin, for all the coverage you've been doing on potential GReader replacements! I very much appreciate it. I'm still totally unsure which service I'll be moving to.
They've mentioned in a comment beneath a recent Feedly blog post that a regular web page version is the #1 request they get from users, but it'll come after they launch "Normandy," their replacement for Google Reader's back-end (on which they're currently still dependent).
Interesting, thanks for commenting Matt, looking forward to that.
One new feature with the update I REALLY LIKE is the huge "mark feed as read" area below the last line in the title view. Clicking anywhere in that big area also moves you down to your next feed. Much faster!
Feedly is the only option as far as importing tags and starred items, right?
Even that is not necessarily seamless from what I have read but I
intend to make the move to Feedly but letting these updates
occur first so the transition will be smoother when I do.
When I signed up for Feedly, I didn't realize add-ons were required for the desktop version. That's fine on my own machine, but sucks if I'm in a business center or at a friends house or something. Guess I'll have to look at some of the other options.
The major problem of this last update is that the option to search your own feeds (gg) has been removed. so You have your ton of feeds and can't search them. Its just as an automaker improving the performance of their cars, but removing the tires!