I have been using JetBrain‘s Omea Reader for quite some time and I was very happy with it. While this worked quite well as long as I was working just on one PC, I soon got trouble when I switched from the notebook to a dedicated desktop PC at home and a dedicated desktop PC at the office, while still keeping the notebook for the time in between. Omea Reader was no option any longer, as I have Linux at home and Windows in its various flavors in the office and on my notebook.
I tried several Java-based applications and tried to keep their databases in-sync between the PCs, but this work soon got boring and it happened to annoy me. So I thought I’d switch to an online alternative.
My choice soon fell for Google Reader, as I already had a Google account. Despite the privacy issues with giving my reading-habits away to big G, I am really happy with this reader. It features everything I need and is intuitive to use. I am most happy that there seem to be very knowledgeable people at Google, as they also provide a keyboard interface for navigating the feeds. This is something I really appreciate as I favor the keyboard over the mouse.
So anyone required to keep their RSS-feeds in sync between various PCs, I just can recommend giving Google Reader a try. I know there are others and I know Google Reader is not particularly new, but I just tried it out now (as I had the need for a service like this).
Google Reader is also one of the first applications to utilize Google Gears for offline functionality. This is particularly interesting for me as notebook user without a wireless broadband connection available all the time. Up to now I had no time to test it, but I will give it a try soon. I will write about my experiences then.
Note: I had this article prepared since a long time, but I forgot to publish it… This article of erik just reminded me to do so.