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Switching to Google Reader

I’ve been a long-time NetNewsWire Pro (NNW) user, and still contend that it is one of the nicest desktop aggregators to read news in. With Bloglines and Newsgator integration, and some voodoo syncing features, NNW also makes it easy to roam between OS X machines. However, at home, I spend more time on my Linux box, and NNW’s Mac-only status means I need a different client. Furthermore, I complicate matters by occasionally wanting to check my feeds from my phone or Nokia 770. Realizing that a desktop client wasn’t going to solve my roaming needs, I’ve played with a number of web-based aggregators, but I’ve always found them lacking a bit. That is, until I tried the Google Reader redesign last week…

Moving from NNW to Google Reader was as easy as expected. It was simply a matter of exporting subscriptions to an OPML file, and uploading that file to Google Reader (under Settings :: Import/Export.)

Using Google Reader is quite pleasant. The big feature they nailed is the manner in which it can automatically flag posts as “read” once you’ve scrolled past them. This alone improves the interaction tremendously over other online readers I’ve tried. Furthermore, when you combine keyboard navigation, it’s easy to crank through news or scan headlines when you have a few minutes to spare. And finally, of course, roaming between machines is a breeze (though I haven’t tried it on the 770 just yet.)

If you haven’t read about the redesign work Google has done on Reader (and you’re interested in RSS/Atom aggregators, or slick AJAX apps in general), check out the Official Google Reader Blog for details.