Amazing picture from the sky

Comparison of RSS aggregators for beginners

I am writing this post after finding out that none of my friends know what exactly a rss reader is , neither what is twitter. This post is dedicated to them.

The web is huge. And you need to keep yourself updated with the happenings around you.

• Get a rss reader. I personally use google reader to read all my rss feeds. (I am a totally google man !!!! needless to say anything else ). But there are a tons of other readers

1) bloglines
This is how my bloglines page looks. The biggest advantage I find with bloglines is that it suggests a lots of rss feeds. So that you can start right away.

UI - 5/10
Suggestions - 7/10.
Reading Easeness - 6/10
Fun Suff - 2/10
Total - 20/40

2)Google reader . Advantage of google reader is it's google's reader :D. So you get added advantage of sharing the stories you like to your friends by pressing a "share" button below every post. But one thing that annoys me too much about googlereader is that the size of the windows looks too small. So you will have to do some extra scrolling. Also I find the suggestions provided by googlereader really crappy.Below is a screenshot of my Reader.
UI - 8/10
Suggestions - 2/10
Reading Easeness - 8/10
Fun Suff - 5/10
Total - 23/40

3) NewsGator : Now I love this one. Here they provide you with suggestions about topics. Click on topics you might like and you are good to go. They will add literally hundreds of subscriptions. Best part is these guys have a desktop client . A sleek looking client aggregating all the subscribed links directly on your desktop. One cool feature this has is "feeds you pay most attention to". A new reading column will appear after using newsgator for a couple of days and will show right away the feeds which you have been visiting the most.I have only one word about this ... yahooooooooooooooo!!! Their web client is also really gorgeous.


UI - 9/10
Suggestions - 6/10
Reading Easeness - 8/10
Fun Suff - 5/10
Total - 28/40

4)netvibes One of those sites which I do not use too much because of high loading time. But hey if you have a very fast connection definitely use it. Ajax powered. Might be one of the most beauiful looking aggregators out there. No much on the suggestion front though.Apart from rss it will also aggregate weather news, flicker photos, have a web note panel, and a todo task panel. You can create multiple pages to organize your stuff. And can also add a lots of widgets (though that is one of the main reason for your site to be slow).


UI - 9/10
Suggestions - 6/10
Reading Easeness - 4/10
Fun Suff - 5/10
Total - 24/40

Overall winner :: NewsGator. This post is only meant for those who do not know what a rss aggregator is or is not using one right now. So mY suggestion , if you are a out and out a google person use google reader , otherwise newsgator desktop client.


In my next posts I will post about how you can remain updated about the web in other ways.

Facts - a lots of them are here

A rat can last longer without water than a camel.

Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks or it will digest itself.

The dot over the letter "i" is called a tittle.

A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top.

A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find a mate. I know some people like that!

A duck's quack doesn't echo. No one knows why.

A 2 X 4 is really 1-1/2 by 3-1/2.

During the chariot scene in "Ben Hur," a small red car can be seen in the distance.

On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily! That explains it!

Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn't wear pants.

Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.

The number of possible ways of playing the first four moves per side in a game of chess is 318,979,564,000.

There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with orange, purple and silver.

The name Wendy was made up for the book "Peter Pan." There was never a recorded Wendy before.

The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin in World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.

If one places a tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion, it will instantly go mad and sting itself to death.

Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to s-l-o-w film down so you could see his moves.

The first CD pressed in the US was Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA."

The original name for butterfly was flutterby.

The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.

The first product Motorola started to develop was a record player for automobiles. At that time, the most known player on the market was the Victrola, so they called themselves Motorola.

Roses may be red, but violets are indeed violet.

By raising your legs slowly and laying on your back, you cannot sink into quicksand.

Celery has negative calories. It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with.

Charlie Chaplin once won third prize in a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest.

Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.

Sherlock Holmes NEVER said "Elementary, my dear Watson."

An old law in Bellingham, Washington, made it illegal for a woman to take more than 3 steps backwards while dancing.

The glue on Israeli postage is certified kosher.

The Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from Public Libraries.

Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space because passing wind in a spacesuit damages them. Not to mention the other drawback.

Bats always turn left when exiting a cave.

Claim for technorati. dtmra938gf

Claim for technorati. dtmra938gf

OOO my god!!!

In February 1984, Mission Specialist Bruce McCandless II went further away from the confines and safety of his ship than any previous astronaut had ever been. This space first was made possible by the Manned Manuevering Unit or MMU, a nitrogen jet propelled backpack. After a series of test maneuvers inside and above Challenger's payload bay, McCandless went "free-flying" to a distance of 320 feet away from the Orbiter. This stunning orbital panorama view shows McCandless out there amongst the black and blue of Earth and space.

Image Credit: NASA

Michael Jackson's sample map