NetNewsWire, NewsFire, and Google Reader
When I switched to the mac NetNewsWire (an rss reader) was the first application I bought for my new iBook. If you believed the talk heads (and as a new mac convert I read them all) it was an easy choice. No other reader was comparable, none as worthy. To be honest, it was rare that another was even mentioned.
After months of use I started hearing about NewsFire. Fans of NewsFire raved over its beauty and simplicity. I decided to give it a try one night and bought it the next day. Nothing was wrong with NetNewsWire. It did the job (though with multiple features for which I had no use).
But NewsFire blew me away. It did exactly what I wanted, nothing more, and as advertised was beautiful. It felt right. I looked forward to using it; something I never felt with NetNewsWire. I was never going back.
One day NewsFire crashed. It had never crashed before. I reopened it. Another crash. But this time it took my feeds with it. Poof. Gone. I emailed NewsFire author David Watanabe with the details. He never responed; nor to a second email.
David Watanabe is a controversial figure. His ethics, registration methods, application support and attitude have all come under fire in the past. I don’t know him, nor what is and isn’t true, but for 24.95 I deserve something that resembles support. Hell, even a ‘I don’t know why that happened. I’m sorry’ would have been fine.
Slightly annoyed, and having to rebuild my feed list from scratch anyway, I decided to try Google Reader. I had tried it before, but never for very long. It always felt clumsy. But this time I was patient. I learned the keyboard shortcuts. I put in on my google start page. And I never looked back.
No, it’s not as beautiful as NewsFire. But the fact that I can use it on any computer, or my cell phone, is too strong a feature for me ever go back. Integration with everything google seals the deal.
For most applications, I’m not a fan of going completely web-based, but for a news reader, I see little advantage with a desktop solution, even though both NetNewsWire and NewsFire are now free. And I have David Watanabe to thank.
Though if NewsFire synched with google reader I’d be tempted to try it.
