Over the years I have used a number of tools to read and keep track of my RSS subscriptions. Until very recently I was using FeedReader which is a free software application. I really liked it’s clean interface and overall capabilities. However it did not handle Podcasts and other enclosures very well. And lately, I noticed a number of feeds that it just could not display correctly.

Being free, I could not complain, however I did send several of the links that it had trouble with to Toomas Toots, the CEO and apparently also the programmer. Never did get a reply. Ah well, onwards…

Prior to FeedReader I had used SharpReader by Luke Hutteman, it too was a great, clean RSS reader, but it is showing it’s age now. It has not been updated since August, and most of the releases since July were bug fixes and minor tweaks. It also does not have any support for enclosures and was having a tough time with several feeds that I regularly read.

SharpReader was and remains donateware, so in a sense it is free but the author does ask for a donation and I imagine if a few more people would donate he might be motivated to continue development and add features. (I have not donated, and I should have, just wanted to make that clear.)

I have also used on and off Attensa and IntraVNews two readers that support direct integration with Outlook. I really do want to have my feeds integrated with Outlook, and yes I have tried the new integrated support built into Outlook 2007. But so far none of them are very compatible with the variety of feeds and formats out there.

Attensa and IntraVNews are both free, and both do a fairly good job of integrating into Outlook. But both suffer from the same problems of difficulty displaying feeds correctly, and they both had issues where I was trying to create a River of News format within Outlook, in Attensa this feature is supposedly built in, however I could not get it working in Outlook 2007.

I have also experimented with NewsGator and a number of other readers including the web based ones, Firefox’s reader, and a number of others.

Then, I found FeedDemon! I had looked at it before but had not wanted to pay $30.00 for an RSS reader when so many free choices are available. I also was clinging to the hope that I could get an integrated reader working in Outlook the way I wanted. FeedDemon is a Newsgator product, but it is standalone and mostly independent of the rest of their product line.

Aside from the fact that it does not integrate directly into Outlook, it has become my favorite RSS reader! It just works! And it handles Podcasts, integrates with either iTunes or Microsoft Media Player, supports playlists etc!!!!

I love it! I have moved all my subscriptions over to it and it runs when I start my system, I can’t say enough good things about the product. Everytime I think, “I wish it did XYZ”, I look and find the feature! For $29.95 you can’t go wrong! Every feed I have displays correctly  and crisply, it syncronizes my read/unread counts across my systems, it’s wonderful!

Highly recommended!!!

Cheers,

Robert Porter