Bloglines vs. Google Reader

To begin with, I’ve never used anything like either of these web-based aggregators before so this is all new to me. Of course, Bloglines and Google Reader do basically the same thing and have many of the same features including the ability to share feeds, import and export subscription lists, organize subscriptions in folders, etc. Even though I spent more time working with Bloglines, I definitely feel much more comfortable using Google Reader. Bloglines caused me quite a bit of confusion that I didn’t experience while using Google Reader.

First of all, I didn’t and still don’t understand why there were so many options while subscribing to my classmates’ blogs. I added the “Sub with Bloglines” to my “Favorites” tab so beginning to subscribe was very easy. However, once I tried to complete the subscription, there were always several options for “Available Feeds.” I didn’t know which one or ones to choose, so I selected all of them. When I went to look at my subscriptions afterwards, I had several copies of the same blog posts. With Google Reader, all I needed to do to add a subscription was to click the “Add a Subscription” button and input the URL. I got one copy of the posts I subscribed to.

Another thing that bothered me about Bloglines was that after I clicked to look at a post once, it seemed to become unavailable afterwards. I liked that Google Reader kept the posts available so if I only had time to skim them to begin with, I could return later to read them more thoroughly.

I get the feeling that Bloglines’ setup caters more to experienced users of this type of technology. Google Reader seemed much more user friendly and easier for a novice like me to understand.