Safari RSS

[houltmac]

As we were talking in another thread we got onto the subject of Safari RSS. This isn't about the pro's and cons of Safari as a web browser, but rather as an RSS reader. Safari is my reader of choice simply due to the way I use it. Here's how it works:

I go to a new website in my browser (Safari) and notice that there is an RSS feed I'd be interested in. Regardless of it's format I can simply see it's an RSS feed. I click the button to see the feed stripped of all it's ajax or whatever has been thrown at the content and decide I'd actually like to be notified up updates. I click the + button to add the feed to my reader (Safari) and choose it's location as "RSS Feeds".

This is a folder on my bookmarks bar which contains all my feeds (as seen below). When I get a new article pop up I can read it in my browser. This is handy for many reasons. Firstly, I am not having to think about my feeds, or check another application. When I am in my browser I am "doing stuff online", including checking my feeds. When a number pops up next to the folder name I know there is a new article available which is quick and simple. The real power however comes in during the read. I can choose to keep articles for as long as I like, single click to view all articles from a specific source or all new articles in all my feeds. I can also search inline using Spotlight and order the feeds/articles however I'd like.

For me then it's all about modes, and not having another browser (a feed browser), I can be in one mode for all online activities. Having a local app pull the feeds also means that they are searchable and all new feeds are still available for perusal even when I don't have a connection which is handy (at least until there is ubiquitous networking world-wide).

I find this method fast, simple and efficient. I never have to worry about format types or exporting or connections; it just works. The only downside seems to be the syncing of the state of a feed over multiple machines (using .Mac sync or any other sync method) which is how we got into the conversation in the first place. Still, if anyone has any ideas I'd love to hear them.

If anyone else finds they have different needs or ways of working that contrast with this please let me know as I'd love to know how any other method (I've tried most) could be easier and meet all the features of Safari.

[baseballboy828]

I use NNW for the reason you mentioned, modes. I feel like news for me is separate from general browsing, just like email is separate. I like having the built in browser in NNW because I can keep all the info related to my feeds in one app. I also find the idea of clippings in NNW (or flagging in NewsFire) extremely handy. I'll read some headlines in NewsGator's iPhone site on my iTouch and flag a few that I really want to read. Then I get home and can easily find the few articles that I really want. I think Safari is fine for a single computer, but NNW really excels when it comes to using multiple macs. pc's, or any other internet connected devices.

[Yuiichi]

I'm completely different, as I love having the separation of my browser and my RSS reader. I'm the sort of person who like to have a tool do one thing really well, and that's what my setup is like.

For my RSS, I use NewsFire. The interface is simple - all of my feeds are listed on the left, I click on one and can see all the updated headlines in the right column. From here, I'll scroll through, seeing what looks interesting, and read those that are. If they tend to be longer or have video that will take time to load, I'll press the enter key, and it'll pop up in a new tab in Safari. This is "flagging" to me, as I'll have more high priority stuff queued up in Safari. After I'm done browsing through a feed, I'll hit the "mark all as read" button to bring that counter down to zero.

A few other notes about how I use RSS: I don't read it during the day, as I'm normally working on actual work, whereas I see RSS as more of a way to relax and catch up. That said, my RSS reading time comes from 2 or so hours blocked off at the very end of the day where I just work through everything. It may seem like quite a bit of time, but it winds me down and tires me out for bed.

Since I only have this one time for reading RSS, I only need my RSS on one computer. NewsFire doesn't yet do syncing (although I hear tell that it will be able to in version 2.0, whenever that will be debuting). This is a non-issue for me at the moment. So yeah, thats how I roll!

[philbowell]

I'm also in the camp of using my RSS as different to general browsing. I use NNW, as I said in the other thread, for this purpose. It means I have a separate app that informs me of new stuff, it's syncing means in my lunch break I can take in a few feeds and have them sync with my iMac and iBook.

One question that has just crossed me, is can you sync those RSS feeds using Mail? I know .Mac sync notes that way, so does it sync RSS that way? I'm assuming here it uses the same database as Safari.

[houltmac]

Yeah, I had that thought earlier. Duplicating those feeds in Mail would allow for sync, even if they weren't in Safari on both machines. This isn't going to work for me though because Mail doesn't seem to want to handle that many feeds and accounts at once. Everything is really slow and doesn't feel like it would last long before locking up.

[mdmunoz]

If you want to see all of those feeds at once, you can go to Show All Bookmarks and click the "Auto-Click" check box next to your RSS bookmark folder. Now when you click it, all of your articles open in one feed page at the same time.

[Galley]

Nothing beats NewsFire. I tried NNW, but could only stand it for five minutes before I deleted it.

[llamame]

I loved Safari for RSS but eventually moved to the open source Vienna… it is the only RSS reader with an all-article view option like Safari has. But now I use a multiple pane view and enjoy it more.

[mdmunoz]

I've been using NNW a lot lately. When you turn all the auto-hiding on, it's amazing. I open tabs (the small ones) in the background while reading stories, and when I switch to one, every part of the interface but the browser is automatically hidden. It's an impressive user interface.

Also, it syncs with NewsGator, do I get my feeds on my iPod.