Newshutch Loses Steam
Well, my beloved RSS reader, Newshutch, has taken a turn for the worse. I hung in as long as I possibly could, but the service lately has been downright terrible. While Newshutch still manages my feeds excellently, the site has been plagued with very slow response times causing the interface to feel far too sluggish to be usable.
Over the past few months it seems that Newshutch was gripped by overload after a switch to hosting company Joyent. I had fond hopes that the developers would come through on their assurance that service would be restored, but there has been no real resolution. After many weeks of frustration, I’ve decided to look for another RSS reader.
For me, there are a few must-haves:
- Web-based application
- Browser integration
- Simple, usable interface
- Feed Organization (Categories)
- Support for alternative content types (video, audio embeds)
I would also prefer something ad-free, even if there is a small monthly cost on my part to ensure this. I really enjoyed Newshutch’s “flag” as favorite feature. A similar feature would be another bonus.
I’m thinking about evaluating Google Reader again, even though their early iterations were pretty rough. They have brought marked improvements to that product in the last few months. However, I am wide open for suggestions. Anyone found an exceptional web-based feed reader?
[tags]feeds, rss, reader, web, application, newshutch[/tags]
Aaron Asay
2007-10-29 1746hrs
Bloglines is totally the way to go… nice to use online and on a mobile phone!
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Justin Thorp
2007-10-29 2235hrs
Google Reader rocks my world.
Zack Rippy
2007-10-30 0923hrs
I use Google Reader. I’m not the most demanding person of my feed reader, but it does the job for me just fine.
David Song
2007-10-30 1820hrs
Have you looked at Netvibes? Meets all of the requirements on your list. :-)
Ayush Saran
2007-10-31 1159hrs
I know lots of people who switched from Bloglines to Google Reader
Google Reader works great and has an offline feature.
i used that before i got on a plane this weekend to read thru some long posts while in flight
Zack Rippy
2007-10-31 1254hrs
The offline feature is very convenient. It also works great when your ISP is lame and you have frequent internet outages (like me)!
Jim Walton
2007-11-01 0915hrs
Google Reader is the answer, much improved over early iterations, give it a look again.
Jason Powell
2007-11-01 2147hrs
I was a firm bloglines hold out until early this spring. I agree that the first release of Google Reader was rough ... but they really made some huge improvements and now it’s what I recommend.
Tim McGhee
2008-01-15 1928hrs
Have you thought of developing your own hosted reader?
Is there any code out there for private use that would still be server-based, not client-based, and would include a “Mark as read” kind of feature?
I mostly use Google Reader. I use Outlook 2007 for all my church blogger feeds.
Tim
11,181 days