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Blogger problems and RSS feeds

I normally view all the blogs I subscribe to using the RSS feed option in my email programme – Microsoft Outlook. I love this, as it means every time someone writes a new post it comes straight into their own folder just like an email. This means that I can take a little break while I’m working to read the latest posts. If you have never tried this option, then I highly recommend it. It is the best way I have found to view blogs.

In the past week I have had big problems viewing new posts this way. When I went to read the new post Microsoft Outlook would freeze, sometimes for a couple of seconds, sometimes so badly that the whole programme shut down. Yesterday I worked out that all the problems I was having only occurred with Blogger blogs. WordPress ones seem to be OK. I did a little research and found that this is a known problem which is affecting Blogger at the moment.

To avoid this problem I am going to be transferring all blogger based blogs onto google reader. This will mean that I will only check blogger blogs once or twice a day, as opposed to constant checking of the others. Hopefully the only difference you’ll see is that I may be a bit slower commenting on your blogs. I hope they fix the problem soon, as I do love my RSS feeds!

How do you view blogs? Have you ever tried using RSS feeds?

24 replies on “Blogger problems and RSS feeds”

gautami – I started out in google reader, then switched to RSS feeds. I much prefer it, but maybe that is because I can kid myself I’m only reading one post at a time, instead of sitting down to read lots. It will be interesting to compare them side by side though.

I am chuckling, because you are usually one of the first people who comment on my posts. I did post one this morning, and I kept thinking “I wonder what happened to Jackie?”. Traffic has been a bit slow this morning, so maybe that is why. It couldn’t be my book selection, could it?

I use Google Reader and love it – I like having all the feeds show up in bold and I can click on the different folders and read only certain ones, or I can read them all…I also like the star option and use it a lot to bookmark posts I want to reference later. I’ve never used RSS – but not because I have anything against it…I just didn’t know how to use it *laughs*

Oh, I also like Google Reader because I use lots of Google products (documents, mail, notes, calendar…) and so I can access all products in one spot.

I am on the Google Reader bandwagon! I just started using it last week, but already it’s become my new way to read book blogs. I like that I check it when I’m interested in procrastinating, rather than constantly interrupting my work flow to read a post… but this way I only spend my time on new content. I don’t find it that much of a hassle, really, because I just leave a tab open in my web-browser. The only thing I’ve noted is that there does seem to be a bit of a lag between updates on blogs themselves and my GoogleReader registering something has changed. Still, even if I’m an hour or two behind, I’m never going to miss a post completely.

Sandy – Sorry you were wondering where I was! I have commented on your post now!

Wendy – RSS feeds behave exactly like Google reader really.They are still all in bold until you’ve read them etc. I guess the only difference is that I like them being next to my emails. I’m just a bit strange!!

Steph – Yes, that is the main problem with google reader. It is just a little bit slow. Once new posts are downloaded to the RSS feed they are there to read, so I can flick through the unread ones really quickly. The couple of second lag you get with google reader really adds up when you want to get through hundreds of posts.

Meghan – Google reader is great too, I guess I’m just annoyed I have to transfer it all across.

Didn’t even know you could view blogs this way! I’ll have to look into it as it might be easier than keeping google reader open (although I love google reader). Hope the problem gets fixed soon.

I’ve tried bloglines and google reader. I much prefer google reader. It seems to update faster than bloglines and since I have a blogspot blog, it shows me the blogs I’m following, etc.

It is taking me forever to copy everyone across to google reader. I didn’t realise how many blogs I subscribe to!

I use an RSS feed via Bloglines and prefer it as well. I looked into Google Reader, but honestly, I was too lazy to re-orient myself.

I hope MO behaves itself soon.

OMG….This post was so helpful. I am not very tech savvy, but through this post I learned about Google Reader, and that it was already keeping track of some 820 blogs I have visited at one time or another. How great is that!. (I use to use my blog roll, and I knew I was missing some great posts, but too many blogs, too little time. This makes it so easy. THANKS SO MUCH

I used to use Google Reader through my personalized iGoogle page (which made it very easy to get updates). Recently I switched over to Netvibes because it is a much cleaner set up and allows me to divide all my blogs into categories!

I have noticed a lot of problems recently with blogger blogs. Some of them don’t open in IE, some just freeze, I don’t know whats up with that, but hopefully they’ll sort it out soon. I use Google Reader, I find it really user friendly. I’ve never tried RSS feeds.

I read that blogger has recently been taken over, and they are having a lot of issues. I really hope that they fix it soon.

I had never really thought about the benefit of google reader being portable. I guess I have just been happy to leave blogging if I go away for a few days. It is going to be good to check posts while I’m away, but I still think it is a bit slower.

I am now about half way through transferring all the blogs I read onto google reader, and I am going to be quite busy this weekend, so the unread posts are piling up. I apologise, but hopefully I’ll have caught up with them all in the next week.

I guess those people at blogger just assume everyone uses google reader.

I used RSS feeds in Outlook for a while but I ended up transfering to Google Reader — simply becasue I’m subscribed to so many blogs, it was distracting to have so many appearing in my Outlook files all day long! Now I have about 30 minutes to read all blogs and then I have to move on with my day. It works well for me.

Jackie, there is a quicker way for you to migrate your feeds to Google Reader. I don’t have the full Outlook software at home so I can’t be certain of this, but isn’t there an “Export” (Export Feeds, Export OPML) option on the File menu? If there is, it will allow you to save a file containing all the rss feeds you are subscribed to, which you can then import to Google Reader by going to “Manage Subcriptions” (link at bottom left of the GReader screen), clicking on Import/Export, using the Browse button to find the file and then clicking “Upload”. It is much easier than it sounds!

Like commenter “Letters on Pages” I have hitherto mostly used Netvibes to organise the feeds that I subscribe to, though it can have it’s frustrations sometimes, and with so many customisations available (e.g. themes) it can cause me to waste a lot of time at my PC when I could be reading a good book instead. Sometimes we can have too much choice.

Rebecca – I love the distraction of them – but I guess I don’t work that hard at the moment – if I had a proper job I couldn’t have them there!

David – Thank you so much for reminding me of the export function! I keep forgetting that these sort of things exist. I have now exported all my remaining blogs, and it only took me a couple of minutes.

I’ll have to look into Netvibes, as I like being able to customise things.

I like Google Reader because you can sort blogs into categories. I like to group all my blogs on similar topics together to read in batches. I also love it more now that you can turn off the unread counts — that always used to frustrate me because I could see how far behind I was! Now I don’t always know, so the unread is less intimidating 🙂

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