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Also it adds a button to the bottom right of every web page. I immediately uninstalled when I learned this. Newsblur has no such shenanigans and is developed b

Also it adds a button to the bottom right of every web page. I immediately uninstalled when I learned this. Newsblur has no such shenanigans and is developed by a HNer.

icelancer 14y ago
Was very excited to try Newsblur. It's not free, for those wondering, and free accounts are temporarily suspended. Oh well. Time to move on.
- guptaneil 14y ago
  What's wrong with paying for a service that you find useful?
  - dmxt 14y ago
    I don't have any method of paying online, well, there is, but it takes too much of effort doing the paperwork in bank that it's not even worth it. I don't live in first world country.
    - mkr-hn 14y ago
      Install a LAMP/WAMP thing (+ python) and run NewsBlur locally. You could even make a local edition where people can pay you in person.
  - frio 14y ago
    Nothing, but currently there's no way to try it before buying, which is a problem.
- jcoder 14y ago
  It is free---it's OSS. But you can pay him to host your feeds for you.
- abhinavg 14y ago
  Newsblur is fully open source. You can host it yourself if you do not want to pay for it.
- mikeleeorg 14y ago
  Clickable: https://github.com/samuelclay/NewsBlur https://github.com/samuelclay/NewsBlur
- carey 14y ago
  Free accounts are only sort-of suspended. Once you’re registered, you can get back in without going straight to the payment page. See https://getsatisfaction.com/newsblur/topics/free_accountis_not_suspended_found_a_might_be_loophole https://getsatisfaction.com/newsblur/topics/free_accountis_n..., for example.
jb55 14y ago
I instantly uninstalled it after I saw that as well. Shame, I liked feedly the most out of the alternatives.
- sbarre 14y ago
  You can turn that button off in preferences, it's really easy.
  - eggnet 14y ago
    Too late, the extension has permission, a future update could change what it does.
  - tommoor 14y ago
    actually, as much as i love Feedly - it's pretty hard to find the preference to switch that off.
    - jonnyscholes 14y ago
      I agree - where on earth IS this mysterious option the internet so fondly speaks of?! edit: nvm, its in the feedly preferences. Not Chromes. Awks.
cheald 14y ago
You can turn the button off in the preferences easily enough. I think they ask for site permissions so they can extract RSS URLs out of the page via aforementioned injected button. Either way, Chrome extensions have visible source, so it's not too hard to vet it.
ezy 14y ago
Too bad Newsblur is pretty badly designed. I mean, there's a lot of bling, but it's completely confusing and sometimes ugly. Magic icons everywhere, wierd fonts -- two different dropdowns on each entry for god's sake. It looks like it was designed by someone who used their IDE as a template for the UI. As an example of far too clever UI: Just try and change your password -- it's bizarre that it has no confirmation at all (I have no idea what my password is now). Not something I want to rely on, or deal with, or pay for. Not that this isn't unexpected... web devs have always been very attached to their bling. That Feedly requires a plugin is... very odd. I don't expect it to last (either the plugin or feedly itself.. choose one), but maybe people are more credulous than I give them credit for. Newsblur needs to simplify, simplify, simplify... but I suspect it's too late for that. I'm switching to an rss to email digest script (modified rss2email). It's probably less bling than I want, but at least that minimizes the unnecessary crap, and works on mobile. It also has the benefit of limiting my tendency to refresh the feed lists every hour looking for procrastination sources. :-)
- Mahn 14y ago
  I had this impression aswell. For all the attention that Newsblur is getting, I found the interface to be rather disappointing; their demo turned me away pretty quickly. Feedly looks great, but yeah, won't use it in exchange of all my data. Perhaps if they come up with a standalone web version. The search continues for me in any case.
- aaronbrethorst 14y ago
  I'm working on a really, really minimal news reader (sign up for updates here: http://signup.viafeeds.com http://signup.viafeeds.com). I like the idea of Newsblur and Feedly a lot, but I don't feel like either of them capture the simplicity that Google Reader used to have, before the unfortunate redesign. I want to get back to that, and have a system that will seamlessly work across the web and mobile. It'll be a couple months before it's ready for primetime, but I should be looking for beta users well in advance of that, and you sound like exactly the type of person who'd want to use this.
  - rdl 14y ago
telebabbo 14y ago
MatthewPhillips, you can disable that button, "Mini Toolbar", from this panel: http://www.feedly.com/home#preferences/mini%20toolbar http://www.feedly.com/home#preferences/mini%20toolbar

Also it adds a button to the bottom right of every web page. I immediately uninstalled when I learned this. Newsblur has no such shenanigans and is developed by a HNer.

icelancer 14y ago

Was very excited to try Newsblur. It's not free, for those wondering, and free accounts are temporarily suspended. Oh well. Time to move on.

guptaneil 14y ago
What's wrong with paying for a service that you find useful?
- dmxt 14y ago
  I don't have any method of paying online, well, there is, but it takes too much of effort doing the paperwork in bank that it's not even worth it. I don't live in first world country.
  - mkr-hn 14y ago
    Install a LAMP/WAMP thing (+ python) and run NewsBlur locally. You could even make a local edition where people can pay you in person.
- frio 14y ago
  Nothing, but currently there's no way to try it before buying, which is a problem.
jcoder 14y ago
It is free---it's OSS. But you can pay him to host your feeds for you.
abhinavg 14y ago
Newsblur is fully open source. You can host it yourself if you do not want to pay for it.
mikeleeorg 14y ago
Clickable: https://github.com/samuelclay/NewsBlur https://github.com/samuelclay/NewsBlur
carey 14y ago
Free accounts are only sort-of suspended. Once you’re registered, you can get back in without going straight to the payment page. See https://getsatisfaction.com/newsblur/topics/free_accountis_not_suspended_found_a_might_be_loophole https://getsatisfaction.com/newsblur/topics/free_accountis_n..., for example.

jb55 14y ago

I instantly uninstalled it after I saw that as well. Shame, I liked feedly the most out of the alternatives.

sbarre 14y ago
You can turn that button off in preferences, it's really easy.
- eggnet 14y ago
  Too late, the extension has permission, a future update could change what it does.
- tommoor 14y ago
  actually, as much as i love Feedly - it's pretty hard to find the preference to switch that off.
  - jonnyscholes 14y ago
    I agree - where on earth IS this mysterious option the internet so fondly speaks of?! edit: nvm, its in the feedly preferences. Not Chromes. Awks.

cheald 14y ago

You can turn the button off in the preferences easily enough. I think they ask for site permissions so they can extract RSS URLs out of the page via aforementioned injected button. Either way, Chrome extensions have visible source, so it's not too hard to vet it.

ezy 14y ago

Too bad Newsblur is pretty badly designed. I mean, there's a lot of bling, but it's completely confusing and sometimes ugly. Magic icons everywhere, wierd fonts -- two different dropdowns on each entry for god's sake. It looks like it was designed by someone who used their IDE as a template for the UI. As an example of far too clever UI: Just try and change your password -- it's bizarre that it has no confirmation at all (I have no idea what my password is now). Not something I want to rely on, or deal with, or pay for. Not that this isn't unexpected... web devs have always been very attached to their bling. That Feedly requires a plugin is... very odd. I don't expect it to last (either the plugin or feedly itself.. choose one), but maybe people are more credulous than I give them credit for. Newsblur needs to simplify, simplify, simplify... but I suspect it's too late for that. I'm switching to an rss to email digest script (modified rss2email). It's probably less bling than I want, but at least that minimizes the unnecessary crap, and works on mobile. It also has the benefit of limiting my tendency to refresh the feed lists every hour looking for procrastination sources. :-)

Mahn 14y ago
I had this impression aswell. For all the attention that Newsblur is getting, I found the interface to be rather disappointing; their demo turned me away pretty quickly. Feedly looks great, but yeah, won't use it in exchange of all my data. Perhaps if they come up with a standalone web version. The search continues for me in any case.
aaronbrethorst 14y ago
I'm working on a really, really minimal news reader (sign up for updates here: http://signup.viafeeds.com http://signup.viafeeds.com). I like the idea of Newsblur and Feedly a lot, but I don't feel like either of them capture the simplicity that Google Reader used to have, before the unfortunate redesign. I want to get back to that, and have a system that will seamlessly work across the web and mobile. It'll be a couple months before it's ready for primetime, but I should be looking for beta users well in advance of that, and you sound like exactly the type of person who'd want to use this.
- rdl 14y ago

telebabbo 14y ago

MatthewPhillips, you can disable that button, "Mini Toolbar", from this panel: http://www.feedly.com/home#preferences/mini%20toolbar http://www.feedly.com/home#preferences/mini%20toolbar