August 28, 2007

Bloglines Beta Launches New RSS Reader: When Companies Listen to their Customers

Bloglines is the most frequent tool I use. Period.

In order to keep up with the stream of information flow I use RSS feeds as one of my two primary tools for information (the other are direct media pitches from companies)

It seems like years ago, I would check dozens of web sites for the latest news in the world of small business technology, including Google and Yahoo news alerts. I would have 10 web browsers open, until Firefox come along with tabbed browsing making things much easier.

Now I stream as much information as possible through Bloglines - an online RSS reader.

One of the most frustrating things about Bloglines for me has been its 200 post limit per feed. After a few days posts in a frequently posted site like Google's Business or NY Times technology feeds could easily surpass 200 feeds. If I am not able to read the feed before 200 posts arrive, I would start losing the older posts due to Bloglines limitations.

I emailed a colleague of mine (one of those whose who in the technology world) and he passed my complaint on to the folks at Bloglines. The next day I get an email from someone telling me that Bloglines is already working on a solution.

Check out beta.bloglines.com which launched on Monday.

This new site lifts the 200 post limit (I hope there is NO limit) and has a number of other features:

A new personalize-able start page (drag and drop build)

3 options for feed reading views

Quick View: Quick headline scanning for busy people

3-Pane View: An email-like interface for feed reading

Full View: the classic Bloglines page layout, updated

Drag-and-drop feed management.

A new "Unread System" that makes it easier to manage what to keep and what to toss.

Great technology like an RSS reader is nice, but a company that continues to innovate and produce better versions of its technology is even better. Kudos to the Bloglines team.

0 comments