Goodbye, Bloglines. Hello, Google Reader.
Gina Trapani of Lifehacker writes about her move to Google Reader from Bloglines.
Her experience is similar to mine. For a few years I was an avid 9some might say “fanatic”) user of the Bloglines web service for reading syndicated feeds (RSS, ATOM, etc.).
Then two things happened. I completely burned out on reading feeds. I abandoned Bloglines, instead using a fairly shallow list of under 50 bookmarks.
One day on a whim I decided to try the current iteration of Google Reader. But a feed reader without feeds is no fun, so I used Bloglines to export my (huge) list of feeds as an OPLM file.
I pointed Google Reader to the OPML file from Bloglines, and was back in business.
It’s all good. Google Reader is pleasant to use. I read far fewer feeds i one day tan I used to, but it’s a handy way to skim a small sample of my list that now approaches 1,000 feeds.
In some sense, the pendulum is swinging away from the bookmark list, more toward Google Reader. But unlike the bad old days, there’s less obsession with trying to absorb the daily fire hose of information and commentary.
That’s like trying to count all the stars in the sky. You can’t do it, never mind that trying to do so will drive you crazy and make your eyes bug out.
I’d rather ride my motorcycle.