I know I use Google Reader to catch up on my favorite sites. The hard part is making your experience easier. Usually easier means you will use it more. Here are a few ways to make Google Reader easier to use.

Folders

Using folders to sort similar sites together will be the first step in making Google Reader easier to use. Just like in your email, folders help you easily find what you are looking for. By sorting sites into categories that make sense to you, you will be able to pick out posts from sites that are your flavor of the moment.

Eliminate sites

Many blogs simply stop posting new content. If this happens, you can eliminate them from your reader. It is better to bookmark the site as a resource than leave a dead feed in your reader.

You may even lose interest in a topic over time. When this happens, there is no need to keep these sites in your reader. They will take up space and make you feel guilty for not having read the 500 recent posts in that folder.

Use tags

Using tags in Google Reader can make finding a certain articles easier. I have a read later tag for posts that I find the title interesting but can’t read at just that moment. Another good way to use tags is as a sub category. Sometimes you may want to create a folder with an obscure name, but it will not really apply to more than just the one site or article. This is where tagging will come into play.

Instead of creating a folder to house one site or interesting post, make a tag for it. The tags show up at the bottom of same list as folders so you wont forget what tags you have used.

Star your favorites

Another way to keep your favorites easy to find is to star them. Using a star can serve what ever purpose you’d like it to. The star can be used as a read later option or to recall what you started to read and need to finish.

Use Trends to see where your interests are

People change their interests very quickly these days. Trends will tell you what you have been reading lately so you can possibly eliminate sites or topics you no longer read.

Search for bundles

Bundles are a bunch of sites that someone likes and wants to share with others. If you own or write for several sites, you could create a bundle for other people to subscribe to your work.

Conclusion

Google Reader is like many other web applications. It is made for a specific task, but by using a little imagination, you can make it work the way YOU want it to. Whether that is through browser extensions, the way you organize it or by using third-party applications.There is always a different possible use than originally intended.

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This problem is effectively solved by RSS feeds. The RSS feed of a website lists its latest articles and let you quickly read them. Tools that let you read multiple RSS feeds save that is otherwise spent on jumping from one site to another.

If you are looking for a competent RSS reading online tool, then one of the best available options is Feedingo.

Introduction

Feedingo is a web service that lets you read multiple RSS in a user-friendly and intuitive interface. The site lets you easily create an account, search for multiple RSS feeds and add them, filter articles according to feed, view and read the articles in the site’s own interface, save the articles for later reading, favorite articles, and share them via email and across social networks such Twitter, Facebook, and Delicious.

Usage

The first step in using Feedingo is creating an account on the site. You can start signing up by clicking on the big green button on the site’s homepage.

You will be required to enter your desired username and password along with a valid email address. With this step completed, your Feedingo interface will open up. Initially this interface will be empty as you will have no feed added to your feeds list.

To start adding new feeds to your account, click on the “Add a Feed” button in the top right.

Clicking this button will open up a window in which you can enter a site’s URL or RSS feed address to add its feed to your Feedingo list.

When one feed is added, you can again click on the “Add a Feed” button to add more feeds. Your added feeds will be displayed in the right pane.

Clicking on a feed will highlight it and make its articles appear in the left pane.

The articles are arranged according to their recentness. You can make any article appear in full by clicking on its title. The article is expanded and made available for reading within the site’s own interface.

If you want to save the article for later reading, add it to your favorites, share it with your friends, or simply make it unread, scroll down to the bottom of the article and find the respective links.

Pricing

The free account of Feedingo allows you to subscribe to a maximum of 10 feeds. This can be increased to 50 or 100 feeds by upgrading your account to one of the premium accounts offered by Feedingo. The 50 feeds account costs $5 monthly or $25 annually and the 100 feeds accounts costs $10 monthly or $50 annually. To upgrade your account any time find the “Upgrade” link in the top right of your Feedingo interface.

Conclusion

Feedingo is clearly a highly helpful RSS feed reader because it offers a feature-rich package in an extremely user-friendly interface. Anybody looking for a competent RSS feed reader should definitely give Feedingo a try.

You can visit Feedingo by clicking here.

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Simply said, PubSubHubbub (aka as PuSH in short) is publish/subscribe protocol addon to the current Atom/RSS technology. It enables your RSS subscribers to instantly receive your feed as soon as you publish your content.

What exactly does PubSubHubbub do?

Previously, when you publish a content, it doesn’t get push to the feed aggregator automatically. Instead, the feed aggregator poll your site (RSS feed) at regular interval and check if you have new content. If yes, it will then broadcast to your subscribers. With this push technology, there is often a delay in syndication and it could be several hours after your content went live before your RSS subscriber can read it on their RSS reader software.

PubSubHubbub aims to get rid of this time-delaying barrier and make everything real time. This means that as soon as you publish the content, your end subscriber will also receive it instantly. The technology is simple. Instead of the feed aggregator constantly polling your site for new content, it will now act as a hub. Whenever you publish a new content, you notify the hub, which in turn send your update to the end user.

You can watch the interesting video below for better understanding.

Sound simple, but how do I implement it in WordPress?

Feedburner way

Now, if you are using Feedburner to manage your feed, your site is already PuSH enabled. You just need to turn on the service in the Feedburner Dashboard.

Go to Feedburner and login to your account (most likely is your Google account).

Click on the Publicize tab at the top.

On the left, click Pingshot.

Click the Activate button to enable the service.

That’s it.
(You may also want to ensure that http://ping.feedburner.com is in your ping list)

Custom feed

If you are using the default WordPress feed rather than Feedburner, there are several plugins that you can use to PuSH-enabled your blog

1. PuSHPress

PuSHPress is the plugin used in WordPress.com. There is no configuration required. Simply activate the plugin and you are good to go.

The big difference in this plugin compared to the other PuSH WordPress plugins is that it includes a PuSH hub built in.

Download PuSHPress here

2. PubSubHubbub

Another simple plugin that requires minimal configuration.

This plugin does not implement a hub, but it allows you to select which hubs you want to ping. The default is Demo hub on Google App Engine and SuperFeedr.

Download PubSubHubbub here

3. WP Pubsubhubbub

This plugin is functionally similar to the PubSubHubbub plugin mentioned above. It allows you to specify the hubs you want to ping as well, so choosing this or the other is really dependent on individual preferences.

Download WP PubSubHubbub here

Have you started implementing PubSubHubbub in your WordPress blog?

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1. FeedDemon

FeedDemon is an application, made for the PC, created by the people behind NewsGator. It has numerous functionalities that will help enhance your RSS feed management.  It has the basic layout: All Subscriptions, Unread Items, Starred Items, Shared Items, and tags.

During the installation, users are able to sync the FeedDemon with their Google Reader, if they choose to.

They are also able to decide if they want to allow FeedDemon to add default feeds, which is useful if you do not have any subscriptions. Another useful option is the ability to import subscriptions from Bloglines, OPML file, RSS Bandit, or a Windows Common Feed List.

There is also a featured called “Watch,” where you are able to add keywords. Whenever one of your feeds has one of those keywords, the folder is smart enough that it contains it. If you want to remove posts, you are able to do so using the Cleanup Wizard.  It allows you to remove them by date, number of items, and folder.

Other useful features are desktop alerts that are customizable by time and feed; ability to share with other people specific items; and the fluidity with Internet Explorer.  If you want to choose another browser, you can always open links outside of FeedDemon.

It’s definitely a great RSS Reader with tons of functionality, which is especially useful if you have tons of RSS feeds, like I do.

2. Feedreader

Feedreader is a simple RSS Reader that does not have the number of features that FeedDemon, but it does what it sets out to do.  The layout is very similar to FeedDemon, which has your subscriptions, unread items, and starred items.

If you want to import your Google Reader (or from another service) items, you can do it by uploading the OPML file and picking the feeds to import in. Feedreader allows you to add default feeds to get you started.

There is this useful feature call “Rating” that you can turn it on. When it is on, Feedreader will monitor your behavior and suggest items that you might find interesting. If you do not want a keyword to be used to make these suggestions, you are able to blacklist it, so that the application doesn’t take it into account.

It also has desktop alerts that summarizes the unread items for each feed.

This is definitely an useful RSS Reader if you are just looking for simplicity.

3. Snarfer

Snarfer is a robust RSS Reader that really uses Google apps. the layout is just like the other two RSS Readers.

It is very similar to the other two that it allows Snarfer to import default RSS feeds to start off users that need the assistance. After you select the feeds you want, you are able to place them in preexisting folders or folders you have already created (or imported).

If you don’t want to put your feed into one of the folders listed, the application should give you the option to create a folder. Users are able to add two plugins: Google Reader Synchronization plugin and Google Reader plugin. These allows you to import and sync your feeds you are maintaining in Google Reader, and the ability to share interesting items with others. Snarfer even has a Google translate function, so you are able to translate feeds from one language to the next.

Snarfer also allows you to do three types of searches: ebay, keyword, or web. If you want to monitor items that you bid on Ebay, you are able to do this using Snarfer.

Like FeedDemon, you are able to watch certain keywords, and whenever it comes in, Snarfer automatically adds them to a “Watch” folder. You are also able to search by web sites. It really takes searching to another level. Snarfer is the most visually-pleasing RSS Reader of the bunch. Additionally, it has great plugins that enhance the reader even more. However, needing to add plugin, whereas with others, it is already built-in the app, is an extra step that isn’t needed. It also doesn’t have desktop alerts, which can be useful. Overall, it’s a nice RSS Reader application.

Which RSS reader do you use on your PC?

Image credit: dwingdwang01

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Below are the top three web RSS Readers that you can use to manage your RSS feeds:

1. Google Reader

Google Reader provides its users with a simple interface that gives them a lot of options to manage their RSS feeds. You are able to sort feeds into folders and tag the feeds’ content. Google Reader provides a variety of ways to share feeds:
1. Email the information to different recipients, or
2. Share it on your personalized, public Google Reader page.

Google Reader also gives you the capability of connecting with your friends and seeing their shared items. If there is a particular item that you want to bookmark to read later, but don’t want to share it, Google Reader allows you to star it. Recommendations are given according to the feeds that you subscribe to. Overall, it’s a robust and easy RSS Reader that can be read from any computer or mobile phone.

2. Feedly

Feedly is a Firefox-only add-on that builds on top of Google Reader. It interfaces with Twitter and FriendFeed, so you are able to keep up with the conversations on the two sites as well. Like Google Reader, you are able to see your friends’ shared items, star items to read later, and hide the items you have already read.

One of the best things about Feedly is that gives you three ways to view your feeds: Cover, Digest, and Latest. Cover gives summary view of all your feeds, tweets, visuals, etc. Digest is more of a detailed view. Latest provides a chronological view of all your feeds, starting from the most recent. It provides a prettier view of Google Reader, but it doesn’t give the flexibility of using your browser of choice.

3. Bloglines

Bloglines is a web-based RSS feeder that currently has two versions – Classic and Beta. The beta version provides you with the capability of customizing your own front page. Additionally, it allows you to drag-n-drop feeds into this page. You can choose to “mark as read” individual posts or the entire folder, which is the only option in the classic. Bloglines can be accessible via mobile phones, and it provides you with the capability of customizing your personalized mobile site. It also works with OpenID technology, which means you can quickly login with your OpenID and bypass the troublesome process of registering a username.

As with the other two readers, you are able to save and email individual content. The drag-n-drop function, modifying the front page and mobile site, and OpenID settings are pretty nice. However, it’s missing the sharing functionality within the reader, like the other two readers support.

Which Web RSS Reader do you use?  What would you say is the best functionality of it?  Regardless of your RSS reader of choice, if you read numerous RSS feeds, you need one. It provides a great way to organize and maintain your feeds, and relieve some of the stress of having to sift through all of them.

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Free RSS readers on the iTunes app store are a dime a dozen.  Most of them however, are not worth even a second look.  So what IS the best way to read your news and get yourself up to speed on an iPhone?

Well one app clearly stands out head and shoulders over the crowd, and it’s Net News Wire for the iPhone.

It’s powerful.  It comes with a plethora of customizable options, which lets you completely customize your reading experience.  At the same time, it’s simple to use.  If you don’t care for customization, it works out of the box beautifully.  It even syncs up with your online newsgator account so the feeds you read on your laptop will be in sync with the feeds you read on your iPod.

The best part? *Drumroll* ….Offline reading.

While almost all other free RSS readers rely on a net connection to function, NetNewsWire will download the feed onto the phone so you can read it offline.  That way you never have to worry about having a decent 3G connection.  If you’re using an iPod touch, it is truly a Godsend to be able to read feeds offline because you no longer need a Wi-Fi hotspot to get your daily news fix.

Do you read news on your mobile device?  Tell us about it in the comments!

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