Aggregator Explosion

In the last couple months, and especially the last few weeks, new news aggregators have been coming out of the woodwork like stolen credit card numbers out of Data Processors International. While there were plenty of browser-based (Radio, Amphetadesk, etc.) and three-pane desktop app (NetNewsWire, Straw, NewsDesk, NewsCrawler, Syndirella, spaces, etc.) aggregators, now we have tools that fit into Mozilla (NewsMonster), Outlook (NewsGator), and good ole nntp news readers (nntp//rss).

I primarily use the Radio Userland aggregator. It’s pretty basic, but it’s got the main features I want. I especially like being able to delete items that I have read or am not interested in, while allowing items that I want to eventually read to pile up at the bottom. The downside of this feature is the immense self-loathing that ensues when the list of items that I imagine I will find interesting grows at the rate of the US public debt.

Anyone want to place bets on how long it takes Microsoft to release Microsoft News? News will probably start out as a really nice news aggregator and will grab huge market share because it will ship as part of Windows. However, just like Internet Explorer, they will let it atrophy into a functional also-ran once it achieves high enough market domination. Hopefully, there will then be a rebirth in news readers, like we are seeing in browserville with Gecko and KHTML-based browsers, so that people won’t be stuck with the mediocrity of an application like what IE has become.

Back to the aggregator parade – I recently tried NewsDesk, mainly to check out a .NET CLR app, but it was pretty disappointing. Not bad for a 1.0 release, but it failed to handle RSS feeds that worked with every other news reader I tried. I installed NetNewWire on Sandra’s PowerBook, and I really liked it a lot. However, since I frequently move between Linux, Windows, and OS X, I need a cross platform reader. I checked out NewsMonster last night, and it stays on the short list with Amphetadesk, spaces, nntp//rss, and HotSheet.

If you find the usage of Java Web Start in the NewsMonster aggregator interesting, you might also want to check out HotSheet.

Well, now, I’ve gone and used up my daily quota of hrefs.

Update – August 16, 2003: RSSJobs has a convenient listing of RSS readers by platform, along with short descriptions.