OK fine… I always suspected this would happen, but now it’s official. Today will go down in history as the day that I finally admit that Google Reader is better than Bloglines. Interestingly, Bloglines was partly responsible for their own undoing. The last few times I tried using Google Reader, I was turned off by the method they used to mark posts as “read” and since this is pretty much the most important thing in a RSS aggregator, I elected to stick with Bloglines. But recently Bloglines rolled out a Beta version that works pretty much exactly the way that Google Reader does and after forcing myself to give it a try for the last few weeks, I finally got my head around why it works that way.
So at this point, with my main objection to Google Reader lifted, I just needed one good reason to make the switch. That reason came this week in the form of Google’s “Recommendations” functionality, which proved to be much more accurate & useful than a similar feature on Bloglines. So I exported my current subscriptions as OPML from Bloglines and into Google Reader they went. At this point I recalled my *other* main objection to Google Reader in the past, which was that their Mobile version kind of sucked, compared to Bloglines. This was less of a deal-breaker for me, but after checking the current version of the site out on my phone, I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had made a lot of progress in that department as well! (The key here is to bookmark the “tags” page, instad of the start page, as this will format your feeds by category, instead of a big, flat list that’s useless to anyone with more than 3 subscriptions).
UPDATE: And did I mention how much *faster* Google Reader is? OMG! This post showed up on the mobile version about 30 seconds after I posted it, compared to Bloglines often taking several hours to pick up posts! (Especially on less heavily trafficked sites like my own ;)
UPDATE 2: Also worth noting: Google Reader displays embedded videos and Bloglines doesn’t (even in their new Beta version!)
I’m always looking for more excuses to get people to listen to Kings of Convenience & their various side-projects. And here’s a great one from Erlend Øye’s “Whitest Boy Alive” band. Look at it! LOOK AT IT…
Reading this article on the decline of Guinness consumption in Britain & Ireland. How sad. Sales are strong in America (& Nigeria) however, so they got that going for them. If I was a Bay Area VC with money falling out my ass I’d be tempted to just buy the whole operation & ship it over. I don’t know much about investing, but I guarantee you that the return on that would make those guys who moved the London Bridge to Arizona look like a bunch of jerks.
Also interesting in that article was the discussion of what new beverages have taken the place of Guinness lately. There are Lagers & Wine predictably, but I’m particularly intrigued by this “cider over ice phenomenon” that’s mentioned. I’m imagining it’s got something to do with pouring Cider over ice, but it’s a bit confusing to me, since I can only ever recall drinking cider ice-cold to begin with. But perhaps that’s just because I’m an uninformed American.
So by all means, British people, drink your Cider over ice. But be careful! Because we Americans have been down that path and you know what’s at the end of it?
Mike’s Fuck Lemonade!
And if you’re not going to drink that Stout, then please send it my way.
