Netvibes vs. Bloglines - It's all what you get used to

Really, REALLY BIG RSS feed button
Originally uploaded by photopia / HiMY SYeD

Ryan from theOwen.com got me started with RSS and newsfeeders when I attended his session at HICKTech at the end of April. The newsfeeder he was using is available at netvibes.com and I really like it. I did try the Bloglines suggested in this week's activities but I'm so used to Netvibes that I don't think I will switch.

Both do pretty much the same thing but I like the final look of Netvibes. I like the way you can set up tabs so you can group similar types of feeds together. I have a tab for General stuff like the weather, as well as tabs for Library stuff, and of course one for Harry Potter stuff. I did this using folders in Bloglines but it's not as clean of a look. You can also move things around very easily so your favourite feeds appear just where you want them.

What I really prefer about Netvibes is that once you have viewed a news item or blog post it behaves very much like email. It still shows in your list but is no longer shown as an 'unread' item. In Bloglines I'm sure there are settings that would let it do the same but as I will likely stay with Netvibes I probably won't investigate.

Both are very easy to use and I was impressed at how easy it is to set up a feed. When I first heard about RSS I was sure it must be for the real technogeeks. But with a bit of trial and error I have found it to be quite easy to set up.

Ryan's real push at HICKTech was for podcasts. I have looked into them in the past on my favourite Harry Potter site, The Leaky Cauldron. Netvibes lets you load the feeds for the podcasts and with a simple click of the play button you can begin the podcast right within the Netvibes site and listen while you check out all your other newsfeeds.

My biggest disappointment with RSS? That the Environment Canada weather site hasn't set one up yet. Again, the Weather Network site does the same thing but I prefer the format of the Environment Canada site - cleaner, less cluttered and not all the advertisements.

It's all what you get used to.