Apr 9, 2006 | blog
Well, OK it may not be “new” news, but it had been awhile since I checked out the updates that coComment has been working on for their wonderful comment tracking service. Among the enhancements to already supported blogging software, they have added a Promotion page and an Integration page.
Both these pages have additional information on promoting their service and coComment functionality to additional blogging software. Go have a look when you get a chance.
Apr 9, 2006 | blog
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Overview
Attensa Online is a free basic RSS reader, available via both Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers. Similar to NewsGator, Attensa has products for purchase that fill a more feature-packed roll as News Readers. Attensa for Outlook ties into Microsoft Outlook similar to NewsGator Inbox, and Attensa Mobile (available soon) is targeted to mobile device users. The free Attensa Online product also plays a role in the other product offerings, mainly as a central synchronization tool, so you can access your feeds from anywhere.
Accessing news from anywhere has always been a useful part of the Internet experience. And Attensa Online answers that need in full with a simple, easy to use, speedy news reader. Attensa can be accessed from anywhere via browser, using a nice AJAX interface that makes reading your feeds quick and simple.
Primer
Before we get too far into this review, here are some links to read up on what RSS, ATOM, Web Feeds, OPML, and news aggregators are.
Features
The main attraction of Attensa is the simplicity of the interface. The list of feeds are on the left, while the scrollable reading pane is on the right. I was impressed with the ability to scroll the reading pane while the feed list remained stationary on the left. NewsGator Online does not have this ability, and you will enjoy not having to scroll back to the top of the page to move to your next feed. In addition, you can adjust the reading pane using three different view types. One displays the feed contents in a one-line-per-post view that makes efficient use of space, the second option shows two lines of the body of each post in a list view. Both of these view options use the upper-half of the reading pane for the list, and use the bottom half as a viewing pane – there are options to turn this off/on. The third (and my choice) shows three lines of the body text of each post, and allows for more space in the view list. The bottom viewing pane is not available in this view and each click of a feed’s post opens a new browser window (or tab) that displays the full post at the respective website.
There are the standard tools which allow you to mark posts/feeds as read, delete them, import new feeds via OPML, or add them manually. Again, there is no method for exporting your list of feeds once you’ve set them up. You can manage the feeds, by folder or category, but little else.
Usability
The simplicity of the AJAX implementation here is great, because all commands are available via a right-click on a feed or folder. It is quite intuitive to right-click and “mark all read/unread”, or to delete the feeds/folders. Performance was snappy in both Internet Explorer 6 and Firefox 1.5 with very little hesitation between feed loads.
Summary
The casual or “newbie” RSS consumer will appreciate the simplicity and easy to read layout of Attensa online. Similar to NewsGator Online, seasoned RSS users would probably pass on the service as it simply does not offer any compelling functionality to match more mature feature-rich news aggregators.
- Pros: Fast, simple to use, easy to read layout, tie-ins to other product offers
- Cons: No export utility, restricted view options, other products offer little incentive to use service, online service is limited to other Attensa products
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Apr 6, 2006 | blog
Reviews Intro:
Now I mentioned NewsGator to a coworker awhile ago and the first question they couldn’t wait to ask is “You mean that spy ware company?”. Of course NewsGator has nothing to do with the old “Gator” spy ware stuff from many years ago, but it’s curious that people still relate the name.
At any rate, this review is one in a number (not sure how many) on free RSS Readers. There will be some online products, some offline products, and some that cross the line using features of both. Along with NewsGator Online, I’m planning on reviewing NewsAlloy, Pluck, Attensa, and as many other free news readers that I can in the next few weeks. At work, I’ve got a chance at a large team meeting at the end of April to present the virtues of news readers, and I figured I’d share that information here.
Primer
Here are some links to read up on what RSS, ATOM, Web Feeds, OPML, and news aggregators are.
About NewsGator
NewsGator has a number of feed reader products – NewsGator Online, NewsGator Inbox & FeedDemon for Windows and NetNewsWire for Macintosh. NewsGator Online is a “Web 2.0” product that uses some AJAX features in its interface. The design is similar to other online news readers where your list of feeds is on the left and the content on the right. It does not use panes or any kind of scrolling system, so your feed list on the left will move up as you scroll down in the post list of the feed.
Features
Since the product is online, you don’t need to download and install any software, set any proxy or port information, or use your bandwidth for synchronizing data. In addition, you can use the online account to sync your feeds with one of the previously mentioned “pay for” software choices above. I’ve got a coworker who uses the NewsGator Inbox and is very satisfied with it. You can import your feeds into the system and start reading right away. While the free web version does not allow you to change the update frequency of the newsfeed, the standard sync frequency seems to work fine for the average reader, however, hardcore RSS junkies will miss being in control of synchronization times.
In each post section, there are three little icons and a set of five gray stars. These tools allow you to mark individual posts as read, add the post to the “Clippings” folder, and the ability to forward the post to an email account. The stars allow you to rate the post. These ratings will flow back to the original source (if they have a NewsGator account) and also help to show other users online determine if this feed/post is of value.
The My Clippings folder is quite useful for “clipping” a favorite post and storing it for later reference. You can also syndicate your My Clippings folder in RSS, and make it available to the public. Its kind of a neat way of saving important posts from a variety of feeds.
The AJAX interface of NewsGator Online worked well in Internet Explorer, but worked better in Firefox. I believe the key on this is to have a current Java VM as AJAX makes significant use of JAVA, and my IE6SP2 install only has the limited MS Java VM installed. Some of the functionality I missed using IE6 were right-click options. These range from marking items as read, deleting, moving, expanding/collapsing, Unsubscribe, and “visit site”. These right-click menu options worked wonderfully in Firefox, and I’ll be installing an updated Java VM on my main home machine to test this out.
Additional features allow you to add a Blogroll to your blog from NewsGator Online, supply an OPML URL, add a NewsGator auto-subscribe link on your blog, add NewsGator ratings to your site, and offer API options to developers. The knowledge base was consistent and easy to use. Structured in a hierarchical format, the articles were easy to read and the system was quick. The customary FAQ was easily found and contained helpful starter how-to’s.
The one downside to the knowledge base, was that once deep within the system, there was no easy link at the top or bottom of the otherwise cleanly designed page to go back to the “reader” view. A few simply “back” clicks get me to where I wanted, but a simple “Reader” link would be better.
Performance
This online news reader was rather quick. I’ve seen faster ones (Attensa for example), but
Dislikes
I actually like this product and may keep my free account, but I did see some strange behavior when marking posts as read. When you click on the folder instead of expanding the folder, then mark the feeds as read, the folder closes. If you expand the folder, then marking fields in a feed as read does not close the folder. This makes sense, but when you click on the folder it appears to expand the folder and allow you to click on feeds, so it is a little confusing.
Summary
To finish up, I find that I like the speed, flexibility, style and ease of use of the NewsGator Online product. Here’s how I rate it (1 being low and 5 being high).
- Pros: Good performance, adequate features, easy to use, nice blog add-on options, neat custom “My Clippings” folder
- Cons: Some odd behavior in Internet Explorer (Java related), can’t set sync schedule, can’t export feed list.
UPDATE: I have to take back what I said about IE6 – at least for some installations the same full functionality will be available. After re-building my day-to-day system with a clean install of XPSP2, I find that all the AJAX functionality in Firefox is also here. Must have something messed up on my other system (sorry).
UPDATE2: While I was unable to find an export function, Jonathon McDougall from NewsGator recommends the following tip to save your OPML. Enjoy!
- Log into your account and go to My Settings | Edit Locations
- Under each location you will see an OPML link. You can choose to make the URL to your OPML public, or if you view your OPML online, you can save it to a file.
Thank you Jonathon!
UPDATE3: Check out the review of NewsGator Mobile at Arne Hess’ the::unwired!
Mar 30, 2006 | blog
Don’t know if I had posted about Clipmarks here yet – I know I had on my old blog. Clipmarks is a neat service that lets you “clip” a section of a web page and archive it to your account on Clipmarks. It also allows you to tag the clip with information useful to you for future reference. You can then search on that information at another time.
The service also allows you to share and save your clips by email or by directly saving a file to your computer. I mainly have been using it for research, where I can later go back and reference the information I’ve found while browsing the web. Its really easy to use, and does require a plug-in for either Firefox or Internet Explorer.
Mar 15, 2006 | blog
I’ve been telling people over the last few months that the next real important piece of Web 2.0 will be online storage. Had actually contemplated how a person could go about jumping into the fold and building a site and service – but alas it would not be (I have not the skills nor the investors neede:)).
However, I am glad to see new online services start to pop up. Like Box.net for example.  They have crafted a nice AJAXy interface that is simple to use and easy to see what you have stored there. With multiple pricing plans starting at $5/month for 5GB, it looks like a nice service to try out.
You can sample the service yourself with a free 1GB account. I’m currently filling up my new account with a number of files I’ve been meaning to back up for months now (no really I have meant to…). The process was simple, the results as I expected. You can upload by browsing with a standard Windows file browse dialog, or their Drag-n-Drop window that allows you to copy whole folder structures at at time – very nice.
Good luck guys, I’m going to continue to use the service and see if I can find enough data to upgrade to a larger account.
Also, check out Russell Beattie’s post on Box.net!
