My recent post on Japanese RSS reader called Fresh Reader got a bit of an attention which doubled the access to Waviaei. Well, probably not a much for experienced blogger, but for a novice like me, it was. Thanks Steve!
Anyway, I thought I will introduce another new RSS reader from Japan. Its called Livedoor Reader. Livedoor might sounds familiar to people who follow the Japanese market news and trends. Yes, its the same Livedoor of scandle-hit web company Livedoor Inc. I am not going to dig into the details of their scandle and the current situation, but the Livedoor Reader is I think the first new web application to come out since.
Livedoor Reader got a quite bit of buzzing around the web community, when it was released about three weeks a go, and most have been very positive one. Not because its Livedoor, but for its performance.
Livedoor Reder comes with what you just expect from an online RSS reader. You can import your OPML files. You can sort out the feeds into folders. There is of course a bookmarklet for easy subscribtion. If you own a blog, there is a “subscribe to Livedoor Reader !” banner you can add too. But, what really many bloggers have given thumb up, is its usability.
Now before I go on, I have to admit that I have not yet used Livedoor Reader. Mainly because I do not have an account at Livedoor, and I am currently not planning to either. Also I am happy with Fresh Reader, which is what I am currently using. Having said that … the usability of Livedoor Reader. Apprantly, the UI is very good. Slick, smooth, easy to use, with help from of course, AJAX. Also, accesskey has been set for navigating around. A sort of “stick a label” feature is interesting. well, its not a label, but a wall-pin. When you read through the feeds, and you bump into san article which you actually want to check at its permanant location (i.e. access to the blog), click a red wall-pin icon at the top. When you finished reading through the feeds, you can jump to all the articles you stuck a wall-pin. So if there were five articles, it will open up each article in new tabs. Very useful if you are using tabbed browser.
One of the possible future problem is its speed. Increase in user number will of course increase the server load. Apparantly, there have not been a huge trouble yet. In future ? who knows.
Fresh Reader and Livedoor Reader has been wellcomed by many, because at least there are RSS readers which you could consider switching from Bloglines. I think I will keep using Fresh Reader for a while, but a good rival with Livedoor Reader is a good thing for both.