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Bloglines: 24 hours later

Bloglines LogoSo, I’ve been running Bloglines instead of Google Reader exclusively for the past 24 hours. Overall it’s getting the job done but there are a few downsides I’ve found so far:

  1. The spacebar doesn’t work. When I get to the last new item in a feed, I should be able to press the space bar to go to the next unread items. It just doesn’t work. Multiple browsers, multiple OSes. (Nor does the “Next unread” button in the lower-right corner work for me.)
  2. The widget view. I just don’t use it. I don’t want to see headlines, I want the articles.
  3. Deleting a feed is clunky. Especially the last light-box that says its done and needs me to click close. Yes, it’ll disappear on it’s own but only after a few seconds. Also, the feed list then moves back to the top of the folder I’m in when I deleted a feed. Please leave me where I was.
  4. No ability to add other send-to options. In Google Reader I was constantly sending articles to my Instapaper account. In Bloglines, I can just send it to their Read later category.
  5. Lack of apps or even a mobile site. I tried bringing it up on my phone. This interface does not work on a small screen at all.

It’s still good enough and I’ll be sticking with it for the foreseeable future, but I’m looking forward to seeing what the Digg folks come up with.

Published by Michael Sauers

Michael Sauers is currently the Director of Technology for Do Space in Omaha, NE. Michael has been training librarians in technology for the past twenty years and has also been a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, serials cataloger, technology consultant, and bookseller since earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany’s School of Information Science and Policy. Michael has also written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and his fourteenth book, Emerging Technologies: A Primer for Librarians (w/ Jennifer Koerber) was published in May 2015 and more books are on the way. In his spare time he blogs at travelinlibrarian.info, runs The Collector’s Guide to Dean Koontz Web site, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year.

8 Replies to “Bloglines: 24 hours later”

  3. yep, clunky… 🙂

    i’ll be interested to see what you end up using — if you stick with bloglines or use something else.

    i use RSS Live Links as a Chrome add-in but it is only set up for my home computer — and doesn’t have the functions / interoperability / portability of Reader. of course…

  4. the footer on bloglines expands for no reason and I have to refresh to shrink it. Does that happen to you?

  5. I think the answer to your question is no. But,I’m not sure exactly which part of the screen you’re asking about. Do you mean the gray bar at the bottom of the reading pane on the right? (Containing the name of the current feed, share, read later, mark unread, and link buttons.)

  6. I have switched to bloglines today… so far I am not impressed. My Google Reader has 71 new feeds, bloglines has zero. I went to a new feed and a blog that I read that have a new item on Google reader and tried to refesh… nada. I changed my setting to Show All Items instead of Show Only Read Items, again… I can’t see new feeds. Beyond frustrated. I may have to find something else.

  7. I’m not advocating for Blogines (it’s not nearly perfect) but I would urge you not to make rash decisions. All of the alternatives are being hammered right now but everyone moving to new services. Give it 24 hours and try again.

  8. Pretty sure Russell is talking about the footer area of the whole window pane, which in Bloglines includes the copyright notice, a group of Netvibes links, and a group of MerchantCircle links. It automatically expands to take up about half the available screen, making reading actual news items very difficult.

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