Changing RSS Readers: From Bloglines to Google Reader

This past week I changed RSS readers from Bloglines to Google Reader . (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, RSS who?, check out this short video explanation of RSS).  I was very hesitant to make the change because I was a big fan of Bloglines, loved their mobile version, and for the most part it worked how I wanted it to. What pushed me over to Google's solution then?

First the pull factor: I am fascinated with the development of Google Apps. Google's recent acquisition of Postini sends a strong message to me (and to others) that Google is indeed building a enterprise capable application that will be able to replace Microsoft Exchange, a program that is expensive, too complex for most businesses, but offers a few must-haves like PIM and email synchronization, and shared contacts and calendars. Google Apps isn't where it needs to be to get my business, but I will certainly take a long, hard look in early 2008.

What does that have to do with getting rid of Bloglines? Well, in anticipation of a possible move to Google Apps next year, I am using many of Google's applications with more frequency: Gmail, Google Docs & Spreadsheets, and Google Calendar. Using Google Reader was a logical extension of this.

Second, the push factors: A few little things have really bugged me with Bloglines. One, there isn't a GREAT way to save posts that I would like to file away. You can "clip" a post, but it's really an undelightful process. Two, last year I decided to divide my feeds into two different folders--feeds I want to read a) daily and b) weekly. Since then, I've wanted to get rid of these folders and haven't been able to do so. Maybe this is an easy fix, but I wasn't able to figure it out. Third, Bloglines has been re-serving me old articles as new articles on an increasingly frequent basis. This third reason was the straw that broke the camel's back.

So what do I think of Google Reader? Love it so far.  Very briefly, I love that I can "star" or tag articles and then forget them until later; the mobile version works great; it's easy to email articles via my Gmail account; there has been no re-serving of old articles, so far; and I can catch up on my feeds offline. Don't get me wrong, Bloglines is great, but Google Reader to greater.