Essay
Plato's Beard » 2006
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Tired of Google reader's lack of "mark all read"? Or Bloglines' or NewsGator's poor use of real estate? Not happy with any of the RSS clients? I heartily recommend Alesti, an on-line newsfeed aggregator. Not only does it cover the important basic features, but these guys seem to actually have a clue (no insult to my talented buddies at Google, whose reader I quite like except for the missing "mark all read"). If you find an important feature missing, you can be sure that the Alesti team will not only clairvoyantly figure it out, but will have it implemented in short order.
The things I like about it:
- Web based, so you can read from any computer, anywhere.
- Fast, fast, fast
- Tags for feeds
- OPML import (but that's a standard for all readers, these days)
- Intuitive/traditional interface
- Appropriate links at every point (reduces mouse travel)
The last point is worth expanding on: If you read a decent number of feeds, one thing that might be of importance for you is to be able to scan through them at a fast clip. The UI of your reader can make a big difference here. For example, if you need to bring up a context menu (right-click) to "mark all read" that's extra work. Alesti gets a lot of this right. There is a "mark all read" right at the top of the article list. There is a "launch in new window" link next to each article title. And so on!
Its a fairly new service (I think) and its still a bit rough around the edges, but quite usable. And it shows a lot of promise.
[I say RSS but I think Alesti supports most forms of syndication]