I’ve been using Google Reader for about a month or so now and the transition to it has been pretty good. It’s got most of the features I want and works quite well. I think Google has a ways to go on it yet, but so far it has turned into my default feed reader.

Here are my likes:

1. It’s web based so I always have access to my feeds.
2. It has a simple and clean interface.
3. No Ads.
4. When you scroll past an item, it marks it read. Other readers mark all items read one you open the feed.
5. I have the ability to star, share and email interesting feed items.
6. It saves un-read stories so that I don’t miss anything. If I’m gone for days, it’ll say I’ve missed 100+ posts on some feeds and they’ll all be waiting for me.
7. Integrated into Firefox’s feed preview page. Ok, so any feed reader can do that.
8. It updates even when I’m reading other feeds. So if TUAW posts something new, I’ll know before leaving Google Reader.

My Dislikes/Wish List:

1. It organizes feeds in alphabetical order. This bugs me as I’m use to having them in the order I subscribed to them. Plus it puts important feeds at the bottom because the feed title stats with U or W.
2. No Favicons. I really wish it’d support this.
3. You only get the ability to tag a feed (or put in a folder) when you are on the setting screen, not when reading a feed. Granted you can tag individual posts, but not the entire feed.
4. I have a dead feed (the URL has been removed from the web) and I can’t unsubscribe from it.
5. No Firefox side bar integration. If they can do a browser sync, why can’t they build a Google Reader sidebar?
6. A bit to much Ajax? I sometimes hang when loading feeds and I think it’s just trying to do to much at once.
7. When importing OPML files, you can’t put them in a folder. You have to do it afterwards on an individual basis. Actually, I think they just fixed this one.

Overall, I’m very happy with Google Reader and have switched both my home and work feeds to it. I’d happily recommend it to anyone and I’m eager to see what Google brings to it. They’ve already fixed one of my pet peeves, now what about the rest?

So what do you use? I’m partial to a feed reader that doesn’t look like an email box and online readers as I hate not being able to read my feeds while away from my computer.

Tags: feed-reader, google, google-reader