Subscribing to RSS or Atom feeds is easy with Firefox or Flock as your browser because you can use Firefox’s Live Bookmarks or Flock’s integrated news aggregator without having to install a third-party news aggregrator. When subscribing to new blog feeds and managing my subscribed feeds, I use Sage, a lightweight, offline RSS and Atom feed reader extension for Mozilla Firefox.
What I like about Sage is that I can use it with my default browser, Mozilla Firefox without having to open a separate application. All I have to do is click on an icon and all my Sage feeds will be displayed in the sidebar. The problem with using an offline feed reader like this is when I have to reinstall Firefox, I have to manually add all the feeds one-by-one. Another issue is when I use a different computer, or when I’m not at home, I have no way of checking my favorite feeds.
With the recent release of Google Gears, I can now download all my feeds and access them offline with Google Reader. What more can I ask for? This is like a dream come true. Previously, I seldomly opened or used Google Reader because of the “offline” issue. Now I can access and read my favorite feeds anytime and anywhere I want.
Google Reader is now my default news aggregator but I’m still getting myself used to using Google Reader’s features and trying to memorize the keyboard shortcuts.
If you haven’t tried or aren’t using Google Reader yet, give it a try and you might also end up loving it and switching to it. All you need is a Google account.
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December 24th, 2008 at 10:55 AM
@Jan – Thanks! Glad to meet another one of my readers/subscribers.
I also use Google Reader but most of the time I use Thunderbird so I read my emails and RSS feeds together which saves me time. :D
December 24th, 2008 at 10:52 AM
Well, you’re on my Google Reader. I have bloglines, too. But I find its update problematical. So it’s mainly Google Reader for me. Picking up on reading offline – this I still haven’t tried. One trick at a time for me, I guess. Hehehe. Oh, it’s the 25th around here already. Merry Christmas to you. Cheers.