5 ms·

Bloglines is shutting down. End of an era.

31 points by donohoe 16y ago

bmelton 16y ago
Dare I say it? Good. Bloglines has been a crappy product and user experience for years, and I honestly don't think that Google Reader is that much better (anymore -- used to be awesome). I much disagree with the assertion that RSS is dead, or even that RSS aggregators are dead/dying; I just think that Bloglines (and others) have really crappy implementations of what a news reader ought to do. Frankly, I always though that treating RSS feeds as email was the wrong way to go.
- zackola 16y ago
  What do you use?
  - hvs 16y ago
    I'm not sure about the OP, but I use Fever: http://feedafever.com/ http://feedafever.com/ You have to host it yourself, but after using it for five minutes it proved to me that it is was more than worth the $30.
    - fendmark 16y ago
      Thanks for this recommendation. As a Bloglines user for years who has tried and failed a few times to like Google Reader, Fever seems to be exactly what I am looking for. It took some time to get everything up and running on my server and configured, but is a solid application and agree it is more than worth a one time $30 fee. Particularly interesting is its concept of Sparks (a.k.a. RSS feeds with a high volume of posts that you wouldn't subscribe to normally.) Fever uses them to help "feed the fire" and surface the most relevant/interesting content from the publications you do subscribe to. Also works very well on the iphone. These are just first impressions but so far I'm pretty impressed.
  - auxbuss 16y ago
    I use the NewsFox plug-in in Firefox.
  - bmelton 16y ago
    The answer shows my bias, I suppose, but I alternate between Plum (a feed aggregator that I am building) and Fever, which is great, but doesn't work even remotely how I want it to, and I hate that it's a self-hosted application that I pay for. It's worth the money, to be sure, I just really don't like the model as it applies to me.
- blasdel 16y ago
  Especially compared to their competitors Bloglines and the last couple years of Google Reader aren't very much like email at all — the only vestige is the unread count. One of the major points of difference is the 'river of news' UI, where disparate items are shown in a continuous stream. It's not really any faster to read than viewing them one at a time like email, but the psychological difference is huge. What do you think used to be better about Google Reader? If anything it was much more like email before!
Koldark 16y ago
I still have my free "I <3 Bloglines" T-Shirt. Guess I can just use it as a grease rag now...
michael_dorfman 16y ago
I, for one, will be sorry to see it go. I thought their beta version (which has been in beta for years, natch) was quite nice. Anyone have any ideas for replacements (other than Google Reader, which leaves me unimpressed?)
AndrewDucker 16y ago
I switched to Google Reader a couple of years back, and never regretted it. I was a bit sad at the time, but they kept having uptime problems, and I wasn't willing to put up with it endlessly.
blasdel 16y ago
I've been using RSS readers in some form for more than 10 years now, and used Bloglines intensively from 2003-2007. I ditched it when NetNewsWire went free with syncing and I realized I had Macs at both home and work. I ditched NNW for Google Reader 2 years ago when I switched back to Linux most of the time, since the web version was terrible. I remember trying Google Reader periodically after it came out, and it was awful compared to Bloglines. It took them years to just duplicate the basic functionality. It's much better now on most fronts now after a couple more years of iteration, though their feed management stuff still sucks.
interesse 16y ago
The feed reader is my primary window into the web. I used to use Bloglines until they got unbearably unreliable some 2 years ago. I host my own Tiny Tiny RSS (http://tt-rss.org/redmine/ http://tt-rss.org/redmine/) since then and can highly recommend it.
EvilTrout 16y ago
I was an avid Bloglines user back in the early 2000s. I remember loving the product so much that I emailed them asking how I could pay for it. I got a reply saying they were still figuring out how to make money. I wonder now if they ever did get around to charging for the service.
- dho 16y ago
  No, they didn't charge for the service, they only showed ads on the start page.
robgough 16y ago
Like so many others I was an avid bloglines user for years. I didn't even like Google Reader during it's early years. The user experience on bloglines just seemed to get worse and worse, and eventually I had to switch.

31 points by donohoe 16y ago

Dare I say it? Good. Bloglines has been a crappy product and user experience for years, and I honestly don't think that Google Reader is that much better (anymore -- used to be awesome). I much disagree with the assertion that RSS is dead, or even that RSS aggregators are dead/dying; I just think that Bloglines (and others) have really crappy implementations of what a news reader ought to do. Frankly, I always though that treating RSS feeds as email was the wrong way to go.

zackola 16y ago
What do you use?
- hvs 16y ago
  I'm not sure about the OP, but I use Fever: http://feedafever.com/ http://feedafever.com/ You have to host it yourself, but after using it for five minutes it proved to me that it is was more than worth the $30.
  - fendmark 16y ago
    Thanks for this recommendation. As a Bloglines user for years who has tried and failed a few times to like Google Reader, Fever seems to be exactly what I am looking for. It took some time to get everything up and running on my server and configured, but is a solid application and agree it is more than worth a one time $30 fee. Particularly interesting is its concept of Sparks (a.k.a. RSS feeds with a high volume of posts that you wouldn't subscribe to normally.) Fever uses them to help "feed the fire" and surface the most relevant/interesting content from the publications you do subscribe to. Also works very well on the iphone. These are just first impressions but so far I'm pretty impressed.
- auxbuss 16y ago
  I use the NewsFox plug-in in Firefox.
- bmelton 16y ago
  The answer shows my bias, I suppose, but I alternate between Plum (a feed aggregator that I am building) and Fever, which is great, but doesn't work even remotely how I want it to, and I hate that it's a self-hosted application that I pay for. It's worth the money, to be sure, I just really don't like the model as it applies to me.
blasdel 16y ago
Especially compared to their competitors Bloglines and the last couple years of Google Reader aren't very much like email at all — the only vestige is the unread count. One of the major points of difference is the 'river of news' UI, where disparate items are shown in a continuous stream. It's not really any faster to read than viewing them one at a time like email, but the psychological difference is huge. What do you think used to be better about Google Reader? If anything it was much more like email before!

Koldark 16y ago

I still have my free "I <3 Bloglines" T-Shirt. Guess I can just use it as a grease rag now...

michael_dorfman 16y ago

I, for one, will be sorry to see it go. I thought their beta version (which has been in beta for years, natch) was quite nice. Anyone have any ideas for replacements (other than Google Reader, which leaves me unimpressed?)

AndrewDucker 16y ago

I switched to Google Reader a couple of years back, and never regretted it. I was a bit sad at the time, but they kept having uptime problems, and I wasn't willing to put up with it endlessly.

blasdel 16y ago

I've been using RSS readers in some form for more than 10 years now, and used Bloglines intensively from 2003-2007. I ditched it when NetNewsWire went free with syncing and I realized I had Macs at both home and work. I ditched NNW for Google Reader 2 years ago when I switched back to Linux most of the time, since the web version was terrible. I remember trying Google Reader periodically after it came out, and it was awful compared to Bloglines. It took them years to just duplicate the basic functionality. It's much better now on most fronts now after a couple more years of iteration, though their feed management stuff still sucks.

interesse 16y ago

The feed reader is my primary window into the web. I used to use Bloglines until they got unbearably unreliable some 2 years ago. I host my own Tiny Tiny RSS (http://tt-rss.org/redmine/ http://tt-rss.org/redmine/) since then and can highly recommend it.

EvilTrout 16y ago

I was an avid Bloglines user back in the early 2000s. I remember loving the product so much that I emailed them asking how I could pay for it. I got a reply saying they were still figuring out how to make money. I wonder now if they ever did get around to charging for the service.

dho 16y ago
No, they didn't charge for the service, they only showed ads on the start page.

robgough 16y ago

Like so many others I was an avid bloglines user for years. I didn't even like Google Reader during it's early years. The user experience on bloglines just seemed to get worse and worse, and eventually I had to switch.