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Giving RSSBandit a try

Tuesday, May 18 2004 - blog

Ona whim, I decided to install the new bits of RSSBanditand give that a try for a few days. I’m still not quite ready to retireSharpReader, but I like some of the innovations that RSSBandit has built. Searchfolders are awesome, as is the ability to flag items for followup. And tabbedbrowsing inside the aggregator just kicks ass.

Two nice-to-haves that come to mind: first, I wish the tree of feeds wouldremember its expansion state. I don’t like that I have to re-expand mycategories every time I start up. Also, I’m not a big fan of the forcedalphabetical arrangement. I took a stack-based approach to organizing my feedsin SharpReader, with the most interesting blogs at the top of the stack. Thefact that RSSBandit forces alphabetical ordering makes me adapt my workflow tothe tool, and I think that’s not the way software should work.

 

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#1 Matt Berther on 5.18.2004 at 10:03 PM

Steve,Ive been back and forth over RSS aggregators for the last little while now... SharpReader, RSS Bandit, Sauce Reader... I tried em all, and all of them had something I didnt really like:SharpReader: didnt have search folders or the ability to allow you to tag stuff for follow upRSS Bandit: the embedded browser was too clunky for me, and in all honesty, I think the UI looks really hokey...Sauce Reader: I liked this one, until I got some feeds into it and then the performance just went right down the tube.NewsGator: this one totally kicks ass, but my exchange admins got pretty pissed about the storage space I was using. I never delete an item from feed for fear of needing to reference it again.Anyways, the point of my rambling is to make you aware of another one out there. You may or may not have heard of JetBrains OmniaMea, which is more than just an aggregator. Think of it as a personal information manager.It plugs in to outlook, NNTP, rss, web sites, files, and contacts, allowing you to link them together and search them in any fashion that you see fit.OmniaMea is in an Early Access Program... get more information about it here: www.jetbrains.com/.../I *love* this one... Let me know what you think...

#2 Steve on 5.18.2004 at 11:05 PM

I just put in my download request. Looks pretty cool...thanks for the tip, Matt. I'll post a report after I've played with it a bit.

#3 Matt Berther on 5.26.2004 at 8:00 AM

Re-reading my comment and seeing other references to it, I dont think I was very clear about what OmniaMea is. OmniaMea is not an Outlook plugin. Rather, it lets you access your Outlook from within itself.OmniaMea is a standalone application.