As everyone knows, Google launched their own feed reader last week. I figured that this was coming sooner or later, but my first response was still along the lines of “ah crap”. 🙂
Since I’ve been working hard on a web based feed reader of my own, I wasn’t really excited to see an 800 pound gorilla like Google enter the space. However, once I uploaded my OPML and used the Google Reader for a few minutes, my attitude changed quite a bit.
Google Reader takes a much different approach to feed reading than FeedLounge does. There are some similarities in the underlying technologies and basic feature, but the two applications have a totally different feel. I’m sure that many people will find the Google approach works for them, but I’m also sure that there will be other people (like me) that won’t be satisfied with the user experience. A few others have already said as much.
There is, however, one area where Google Reader beats FeedLounge and all other feed readers hands down: performance1. I can honestly say I had no clue as to the scope of data we’d be talking about when we initially decided to create a feed reading application and service. It’s more on the scale of a search engine than it is a standard web app.
The twin challenges of creating a scalable system and procuring the hardware to implement it are a huge barrier to entry for anyone wanting to get into the feed reading game. Even Bloglines with their years of experience and the money from their sugar daddy is having performance trouble these days. And it’s only going to get worse as the user base and the content available continue to grow.
I know it probably looks like FeedLounge has been stagnent recently, but there has been quite a bit happening behind the curtain. Besides creating a few new features, Scott and I have been exploring a number of business opportunities that would help get FeedLounge out to the masses. Oh how we envy Google’s server farm. 🙂
We’ve also considered a number of different shortcut options to help us get FeedLounge to market faster; everything from cutting features that are difficult to scale to re-designing the app as a single-user app rather than a community app. We actually are making progress and moving forward – just more slowly than we’d like. It’s awfully frustrating not yet being able to share it with the world.
- Probably search too, but I haven’t explored this. [back]
This post is part of the project: FeedLounge. View the project timeline for more context on this post.
hi alex. i just started some weeks ago a feed agregating service for german blogs, but unfortunately i had to learn, that the ressources where not enough after some weeks…. so i just stopped it and now i started a buttongallery. Anyone can add their 80×15 Button with a Link. 🙂 Not the same, but i think there are enough feedreaders on this world…
I can’t wait to see FeedLounge. Gee I hope I get sent an invite some day *wink wink*.
Just tell me that with feedlounge we’ll be able to browse by feed and not just the ‘river of data’ and I’ll be happy. 😉
Some feeds I don’t read until I get home, others I read on my lunch break and stuff. Google’s reader basically makes this impossible (ok, so not impossible, but more difficult).
Looking forward to feedlounge hitting open beta or an invite to happen my way, heh, but no matter how I get an account, I’m going to be sure to look into feedlounge, if for no other reason then how much time you’ve put into it.
Thanks for the link Alex. It’s pleasant to see someone of your stature actually read/come across my blog and reference it.
As an alpha user I love feedlounge, even with the slow temperament of the system I can’t stop using it. The UI is just so wonderful. And that UI, I could imagine creates the some if not a lot of the load on the server.
And my worst fears, like you said about bloglines; is feedlounge going to get better or worse? I trust that you will try to work your magic but I wonder if that would be good enough when the beta rolls out and every “digger” hears the news of how great feedlounge is.
You said that you are considering a single-user app, something I would strongly advocate for two reasons. One, you would get direct revenue. Something you currently seem to have issues with because you can’t find an ad system (or did you?). Two, while giving a singe-user system with or without some keys feedlounge features, like the social aspect, you would capture those “advanced” users. Those advanced users have a lot of feeds and they want it fast, me included.
I really think that selling feedlounge as an app would sell wonderfully and would take some of that load off the “social” feedlounge. Making an even greater experience to pull in that 95% of the internet that doesn’t use an RSS agreigator.
Matt – take a look at the screenshots, that should answer your questions about reading capabilities.
Dan – search feeds are a great way to see what people are saying about you and your projects. 🙂
Very little of the server load is the UI, it’s just an unbelievable amount of data per user.
There are two big problems with packaging FeedLounge for sale as an individual user application:
1. Most people don’t have sufficient server access or the required server components to install it.
2. It would quickly get black-balled by shared hosting companies, like the other single user feed readers are about to be. The server load from a feed reader is shocking.
[…] Thanks for the link Alex. It’s pleasant to see someone of your stature actually read/come across my blog and reference it. […]
Never even thought about shared hosting plans; the overwelming majority.
That’s a bummer because i would love to have it on my own box.
You could always sell it to Google. the best of both worlds. Just don’t undersell it or sell it to MS. ;-D
I was just kidding about the last part; don’t know if that smiley explained that or not.
Thanks for linking to my humble commentary on the whole thing. Concerning your entry, I do feel though that Google Reader’s clunky UI (and the fact that you can’t browse by feeds, as mentioned above) destroys any kind of leeway they might have gained through their performance advantages.
I’ve been using FL for at least a month or two now and have liked it so far even though it’s still pretty basic. Testing out the Google Reader seems to be giving me all the same functionality that I use in FL, but at a much much faster pace. I’m kind of going back and forth between the two for right now. Now that I hear Alex talk about the server problems and it may actually keep getting worse I’m thinking about sticking with GR.
@matt,
All you need to do in GR is click the subscriptions link at the top and you can browse feed by feed or tag by tag. 1 extra click is not “impossible” or “more difficult” if you ask me.
I can definitely atest to that. I wrote a nifty little script that collected feeds, and then took its ‘best stab’ at what subjects were being talked about the most in the land of RSS then it redesigned its homepage somewhat like a newspaper, showing the most popular topics and articles related to them. I even made a spider that went out looking for feeds. Even without the spider, just crawling several hundred feeds could spike the load on my server. I can only imagine what you’re experiencing having to scan thousands of feeds.
Yeah, I had, guess I was mainly just throwing it out there to reiterate the whole idea that I don’t like all feeds as one.
No, but it is annoying, and performance isn’t exactly ‘lightning fast’ in GR. When click on subscriptions you have to wait for it to load up your subscriptions, etc. Just seems like a simple choice between the two style’s of UI for GR would have been a no-brainer for them to implement, yet thet overlooked it. Kinda makes you wonder if they asked anyone that uses feed readers to review GR before releasing it…
That’s why it’s beta and has only been out a few days.
Google hides behind the word ‘beta’ all the time. No slack from me on it any more.
[…] The feed reading services provided by Alex and Google are more of a “sign up for service on some central super-cluster” kind of deal. The reason I am stopping my project for Google’s and not Alex’s, is because Google’s is free (and I respect that very much). Alex posted a somewhat biased (and rightfully so) Google Reader vs FeedLounge, and while I have never used FeedLounge (no Opera support), Google Reader seems to be working very well for me so far. Good luck to Alex fighting that “800 pound gorilla”, he and his partner might need it. […]
Google Reader
Décidément Google est àla une sur ce blog. En effet, en cherchant des retours d\’expériences sur l\’utilisation de