As Marc Orchant points out, Monday was a big day for NewsGator. Not only was FeedDemon 2.0 released, but we also:
- Released a new version of NewsGator Inbox (our aggregator for Microsoft Outlook)
- Launched a significant overhaul of NewsGator Online (our free web-based aggregator)
- Fulfilled our promise to get rid of our subscription model
- Pushed out a re-design of our entire site
Now, I'll be candid and admit that I didn't used to be a fan of NewsGator Online - it just didn't look or feel right to me. But this new version is far better. In addition to adding obvious interface enhancements such as favicons, we've also made it easier for us to push out new features, so you can expect even more improvements over time. If you tried NewsGator Online in the past and didn't like it, I hope you'll give it another try - I'm willing to bet you'll like it much better now.
First, FeedDemon 2.0 is amazing. Thanks, Nick.
Second, the new NewsGator is a HUGE improvement. I looks better, it's faster and the AJAXiness adds functionality without detracting from usability (for example, drag-and-drop feeds from folder to folder).
Here comes the but... But, NewsGator OPML still doesn't have a version attribute in the top-level opml element. I know they meant to fix this. They've been saying so in the forums. It must be an oversight. Right? :)
Posted by: Dan MacTough | Wednesday, March 29, 2006 at 01:42 PM
Nick!
Newsgator on-line is looking SLICK!
I'll give it another spin as I too was not impressed with how it worked before. But now it's looking good. Not sure if it'll make me jump ship from BlogLines but I'll give it another go-at-it.
Thanks for the update!
Posted by: Jon-Paul LeClair | Wednesday, March 29, 2006 at 02:02 PM
All that and I still can't find the "Mark All As Read" option in Newsgator Online...
Posted by: Jeff Lewis | Wednesday, March 29, 2006 at 02:34 PM
Nothing seems to have changed for me - is this because I am a UK user?
Posted by: Dave | Wednesday, March 29, 2006 at 02:48 PM
Put me down as another guy who was unimpressed with NewsGator web before, but impressed with it now.
One reason I like it is because it looks a lot like FeedDemon.
Posted by: Mitch Wagner | Wednesday, March 29, 2006 at 09:20 PM
Still not for me - A local copy of FD does it all better - I think a USB/opml solution with FeedDemon makes more sense, when i go to the office i take roboform and my FireFox settings and mp3's - so why not FeedDemon.
Somebody might want to put the support link at the top of the page (before the corporate doublespeek)..
Posted by: brettkan | Wednesday, March 29, 2006 at 09:31 PM
Dave - indeed, the site changes have only been rolled out on the US site so far.
Posted by: Greg Reinacker | Thursday, March 30, 2006 at 12:46 AM
Thanks Greg. I'm of the opinion that the 'old' Newsgator was nowhere near as easy to use as Bloglines. Am hoping that when this comes to us Brits it'll solve that as the sync between FD and NG works a treat.
Posted by: Dave | Thursday, March 30, 2006 at 03:29 AM
Nick, I cannot say enough about the improvements you've made in to the interface with 2.0. Looks great and is a pleasure to use each day.
Love it.
Posted by: Brian Baker | Thursday, March 30, 2006 at 04:36 PM
Is Topstyle dead?
Posted by: Rob | Friday, March 31, 2006 at 10:29 AM
Rob, I know it looks that way given my focus on FeedDemon lately, but no, TopStyle is not dead. I continue to use TopStyle every day (I used it to created FeedDemon's newspaper styles, for example), and plan to keep updating it.
Posted by: Nick Bradbury | Friday, March 31, 2006 at 11:54 AM
Finally a written word, by the developer, concerning TopStyle! Hooray!
Nick - please make an blog entry and outline for us exactly what your intentions, now and in the future, are with TopStyle .... please.
Thom
Posted by: Thom Rollings | Friday, March 31, 2006 at 01:30 PM
I want to like Newsgator Online and Feeddemon, I really do, but I'll be sticking with Bloglines. A couple of reasons:
Speed. Bloglines is always very, very responsive. Newsgator Online still seems painfully, painfully slow. Bloglines may even be as fast as Feeddemon, which is astonishing considering it's a Web app. With that speed, why bother with downloading and synchronizing feeds?
Frames. Bloglines uses them, so if you have a lot of feeds, you can scroll down and read your feeds and then switch to another feed without scrolling back up. That matters a lot if you're reading a lot of feeds.
This are the kind of basic useabilty issues that Newsgator (not Feeddemon) seems oblivious to as it releases one self-congratulatory press release after another.
Posted by: Bartolome | Friday, March 31, 2006 at 08:34 PM