Rss Feeds And Utility

26 May 2003

I’ve been using SharpReader for just over a week now. Luke Hutteman is the developer behind SharpReader. It’s one of the three-panel designs that is similar to what you see if you have the preview panel turned on in Outlook. Down the left-hand column, I see a list of RSS feeds that I’m subscribed to. At the top in the middle is a list of the specific entries for the feed that I’m currently looking at – bolded if unread, normal text if read.

The main panel in the middle and at the bottom shows either the specific entry I’m reading or the entire weblog I’m looking at. Single-clicking or double-clicking determines which of these is true.

This morning I subscribed to the RSS feed from weblogs.com. Doing so allows me to page through dozens of recently-updated sites very quickly. It’s not particularly useful for reading weblogs, but it’s a good way to discover new weblogs.

I haven’t looked at:

My intent is to pick one of these and stick with it. FeedDemon may be first in the running even though I haven’t seen it. The reasons are:
  • I want to learn CSS and TopStyle may be the key to that
  • FeedDemon will be supported by Bradsoft as is TopStyle
  • A commercially viable solution appeals to me more than a freeware/shareware solution where support and innovation might be more likely to lag or cease

Part of the decision between these four will be made after seeing what Movable Type Pro and/or TypePad do with the whole notion of ”single-click” posting from RSS feeds, if anything. Will either or both of those packages move toward an integrated RSS reader and posting capability?

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