Google just announced Google Reader, an-online news aggregator (you know, those applications used to read RSS newsfeeds which are all the rage for reading blogs and podcasts).
I mention this because I don’t really enjoy using any of the newsreader applications that I’ve tried. There are plenty, and some of them, like NetNewsWire or NewsFire, are very good. So what’s the problem? Hmm, maybe I just don’t like using two different applications to surf the Web. If I want to surf over to a site, and I’m already in my Web browser, it feels contrived and unnecessarily complicated to launch a separate newsreader application to do so…
Apple’s Safari 2.0 web browser has built-in RSS functionality, but it requires Mac OS X Tiger and I haven’t upgraded from Panther yet, so I can’t comment on its usefulness.
(Yes, these are all Macintosh apps. Sorry, I don’t do Windows).
Enter Google Reader. There may be other Web-based newsreaders out there, but after using it for a browsing session, I like it. It’s rather fast, the UI is nice, and there is even a built-in media player for you podcast fanatics out there.
I feel a little silly plugging Google who certainly don’t need my help, but I nearly missed this announcement, so in case you did too, now you know.
Regardless of the newsreader you use or end up using, remember to subscribe to sknoblog!
The link is available in the sidebar (and here for the occasion).
Or copy and paste the following URL into your newsrerader if and when and where appropriate: http://vincent.knobil.free.fr/sknoblog/?feed=rss2.