Reading RSS Feeds

If you're like me and like to read blogs and web news sites (or you want to simplify getting my other blog, Technology Almanac), you could use a good RSS reader application.  It is true that you already have some built-in options.  For instance, if you use Gmail, you have Google Reader which is a fairly sophisticated RSS reader.  I think the interface looks cluttered and hard to read, but that is just me.  If you use Mac Mail, you can have your RSS feeds added to your left-hand menu in Mail -  but that only works for a small number of feeds and then it gets cluttered.

Which brings me to my RSS Reader of choice, NetNewsWire from NewsGator.  NetNewsWire is free (always a good start) and has a host of features.  You can organize your feeds into folders and sub-folders.  You get a very clean reading interface.  You get tabbed browsing (just like Safari).  And you can save your favorite feeds into a Clippings file for later referral.

So let's look at the interface below:

If you use Mail, this should look familiar.  Feeds are on the left, the list of new posts from a specific feed are on the top-right, and the text of the post is in the bottom-right.  Tabbed browsing is on the far right.  This is a very clean and intuitive interface to work with. 

NetNewsWire has a built in browser window which means that if you click on a hot link, it will open right up in the Reader.  If you prefer (and this is what I do), you can change that behavior in the NetNewsWire Preferences so that any link is opened in Safari.  This just seems to keep things a little more organized for me but you might have a different experience.

Subscribing and unsubscribing are dead-nuts simple.  You can set up NetNewsWire to be your preferred RSS reader.  To do that, have Safari be the active window, open Preferences, click the RSS tab at the top and set NetNewsWire in the drop down.  See below:

Now, when you click on the RSS button that appears at the right side of the URL bar in Safari, the Subscribe Window from NetNewsWire will automatically open and give you the option of renaming the feed or using the default.  Click Subscribe and you're done.  

Some added bonuses of NewNewsWire is that you can sync all your feeds with Google Reader so that you can still have them when you are on someone else's computer.  And, if you have an iPod Touch or iPhone, there is a free app by the same name that also lets you read them on the those devices.  

There are more features you can read on the NewsGator homepage for NetNewsWire.  Hope you enjoy it.