Marktopia

I decided to really tackle the method of my blogging madness. After some thought, I decided that I had to analyze programs in a specific order as they will affect the next choices. For example, picking a RSS reader that doesn’t work with the blog editor would cause me to go back and check other blog editors. Because of this, I decided to tackle things in this order:

• Blog Editor
• RSS Reader
• Web Browser

This is also works because it is going from the limited to large audience applications so by picking a blog editor first, it should make choosing a browser easiest in the end, or so my thinking goes.

For those of you who don’t want to read everything, my final result is MarsEdit as a blogging program, Google Reader for RSS and Intel Optimized Firefox for browsing, with a curiosity for Flock as it evolves as a replacement for all of those programs.

Blogging Editors to Try

Evaluation Standard - Able to post to a WordPress 2.3 blog using keywords with minimal effort.

ecto3

This is still in alpha, so i will cut it some slack, however it is not handling keywords from wordpress 2.3 well. There is a keywords dialog box that I cannot get enabled correctly. It can post new keywords, but will not download keywords from posted items, so it runs into syncing problems. It does have a media browser to quickly add media from my machine to the blog though.

MarsEdit2

Nice simple interface and works perfectly with Wordpress 2.3 tags by changing one option. Post editing is quick, although the default view has HTML markup to clutter things. Flickr integration is a great feature as I am quickly able to access my pictures and add them to the blog post. Editing of posts is also done quickly and Growl integration caps things off. This is my editor of choice.

Readers to Try

Evaluation Standard - View all of my new items in a single view that is easy to navigate. Be able to star/flag items to read later. Be able to blog an entry from the reader.

Vienna

A simple but efficient RSS reader. Has a 3 paned view that shows all of the feeds in groups, then headlines, then each item. Can be configured to mark articles as read when clicking on the headline so using the arrow key, you can whip through unread articles fairly quickly. Many different reading styles, but the 3 pane view is the only view, so it is missing the combined view I like so much. It also supports flagging of articles, which I use quite a bit. It also does not support blog editors, so that is a bit of a drawback. Importing also worked, maintaining the folder structure correctly.

Google Reader

The web based reader of choice for many now, the addition of search has added this back onto the list for me. I like the combined view and it would be perfect except that it doesn’t have a great way of blogging about an item. The other drawback for Google Reader is that only Firefox can set it as the default reader, not Google Reader’s fault, but an issue to deal with. Flagging is done through the Star function and works as it should. Importing also maintained the folder structure without problem.

NetNewsWire3

Very Mac looking application with lots of options. The biggest issue is that when reading in the combined view, when hovering over an item, it does not mark it as read. This means that I have to use the keyboard to click up through each item. It also doesn’t like some enclosed media items, so that isn’t cool. It does have the ability to post to a blog easily and it interacts with MarsEdit very nicely, so it has that working for it. It is close, but just not there for me. It also has flagging and imported the folder structure as expected.

NewsFire

Another very Mac looking application, however it is also restricted by the viewing options. It did not import the groups for my feeds, but it does support them. It then displays everything in a headline view and when clicking on it, changes to that item’s view. This is the only way to mark an item as being read from the main view. Navigating between items is done with the space bar, so going through a lot of unread items means jamming on the space bar a lot. The program does support blog posting which worked with MarsEdit

Shrook

Shrook goes with a 4 pane view with the groups, then channels in each group, then each item in each channel and then finally the content of the item. This again cannot be edited, and marking items as being read is similar to Vienna where you have to arrow through each item. Flagging works just fine and blog posting with MarsEdit was a snap. The lack of a combined view does make it difficult to recommend though. Shrook also saves each item as it’s own file, so that can be a bit of a file hog.

endo

endo, made by the same guy making ecto, is a neat looking application, but it doesn’t do the combined view easily. It does allow blog posting easily. Everything revolves around groups of feeds that you have the headline view of and have to arrow through. The lack of other viewing options is disappointing, but the folder structure was adopted as endo groups, so that is good. Another thing to note is that the Applications Support folder for endo seems to create a file for each item adding up to lots of files.

Bloglines Beta

I shouldn’t give my final opinion on this, since is a beta product, however the basic feature set is there and it is still missing something. It does combined views for all articles and for groups kind of. The combined view groups all articles by feed, so I don’t get to see the newest item on top, I get to see the newest item from the top feed in alphabetical order. This seems like something that should be changeable, but I can’t find it. The other interesting view is the Quick View where you can see the 5 newest items for all your feeds, but there is no quick way to mark an article as being read without marking them all as read.

Browsers to Try

Evaluation Standard - Non-bloated (subjective of course) and has the Mac look and feel.

Firefox 2

Firefox has been my favorite browser for a long time. It has a minimal footprint where you get to add whatever you like into it and it renders standards compliant pages fairly well. It is also the only browser that supports Google Reader subscriptions out of the box. The biggest problem I have had lately is that Firefox has become sluggish and crashes often. Because of this, I am trying out:

Intel Optimized Firefox 2

Same old Firefox but optimized for Intel Macs. It picked up my Firefox profile just fine without having to change anything. It also found all of the plug-ins I have and has them working just fine also. More time will tell if it runs into the same issues as the normal version, but for now, this seems to be the winner.

Safari 3 Beta

Safari 3 is better, but still not perfect. The biggest issues are lack of plug-in options and that Google Reader doesn’t render quite right on it. There is also the minor issue that I like to use my address bar as a sort of temporary bookmark area where I can drop down a list of pages I have typed the address into, Safari does not have an easy way to access this. On the plus side, Safari 3 is very fast though in loading pages, noticeably faster than Firefox and Opera. Speed isn’t everything though, and it isn’t enough to make me use Safari.

Opera

Oh Opera, you try to do so much and end up falling short in so many areas. You have a built-in feed reader but have no option to change to a different reader. The interface is not very Mac-like and most of the “neat” features are just that, neat but don’t provide any real substance. It works as a browser, but all it’s extra stuff just bloats things up.

Camino

The simplest of all the browser, it has the basic features of pop-up blocking and feed detection, however you cannot use Google Reader as your default feed browser, so that is an issue. It also feels a little less polished than the other applications, but it is rather speedy compared to everything except for Safari. I would really put Camino in the same boat as Safari, it is great for people who like the usage of Safari, but want a Gecko browser.

The Wild Card

Flock

Always the wild card, Flock brings everything to the table with an RSS reader, blog editor and browser all in one. It also has other features, such as a web clipboard and media browsers which provide some interest. Up to 0.9 version, Flock has matured from their initial release, however releases are few and far between, which provides some hesitancy. Breaking down each section, we start with the blog editor.

The blog editor is very basic, allowing for posting and that is about it. It does support categories, but not the keyword feature in Wordpress 2.3. It also does not allow for editing old posts, but you can overwrite old posts with a new one. Not the most useful and the lack of keywords eliminates it from use as a blog editor, however it was interesting enough to have me check back on it when/if there is a 1.0 version.

The RSS reader is actually pretty nice. It has a great combined view that looks a lot like Google Reader in function. It allows you to save posts and blog posts directly from the built-in blog editor, which is cool. The biggest problem I have is that I cannot restrict it so it only shows unread items. If it had this feature, it would be very useable for my purposes. The only other concern I have is that with over 100 feeds, it seems to use quite a bit of memory and slowdown was noticeable.

The browser is basically Firefox with a fairly busy theme. This is done on purpose to allow quick access to the advanced features, but it also makes it look really busy. Because it is built on Firefox, it has many of the plug-ins that Firefox can install.

Additional Notes

In the course of writing this, I found some neat things out. The biggest one is a third party program called the Google Reader Notifier that runs in the menubar and lets you know when new items are available. The really nice feature of this is that it allows browsers other than Firefox to set Google Reader as the default feed reader, getting rid of one of my concerns about Safari and Camino. The other thing is that instead of blogging about a blog post from an RSS reader, the sharing ability of Google Reader might work best for gathering interesting posts by other people. This would be difficult to do with many RSS programs, so it ends up being another nice feature.

Final Outcome

First, this took a lot longer than I was expecting, mainly because I wanted to give each program a fair shake. I hate installing a program, giving it 3 minutes and deciding it is not for me. I like to think that I pushed each program to try and do what I wanted it to, and in the end, I am happy with my results. My biggest surprise is MarsEdit and how far it has come from the previous version. The second biggest surprise was that Flock was fairly close to accomplishing all of the tasks by itself.

I should also comment that I have attempted similar tasks like this before on this blog. This was the most comprehensive and the plan from now on is that I will evaluate new or updated tools as them come out, and then use the appropriate tag so it will be easy to find, for example, all of the blog editors I have reviewed. I will also keep a small area of the sidebar to keep track of the current tools I am using.

Since getting my new computer, I have been using Safari as my web browser. It isn’t really bloated and some of the bookmark stuff is nice with it, so I decided to stick with it. I remember reading that many newer sites have issues in Safari, but kinda ignored that at first. Now I have run into about 3 or 4 sites that just don’t work in Safari, including the rich text editor for Wordpress.

The question is, do I keep with Safari and be one of those people that rants and raves about how all these sites are ignoring the Mac user, or do I try out Camino or Firefox and know that things will work then? Right now I am leaning towards Camino since it is a Universal binary and will likely run better than Firefox on my laptop, but I am open to other thoughts.

Today I have finally come to a standstill between three different questions about Internet usage.? First up, do I continue with IE7 or go back to Firefox and find ways to add the things in IE7 that I liked?? I will be perfectly honest, IE7 is a damn impressive program.? It fixes so much of what is wrong with IE6 that it somewhat confuses me when I start IE6 up on a work computer.? The one drawback to IE7 is that there is no real way to keep the Links bar and keep the minimal look at the top.? The main reason the Links bar is needed is for adding new pages to del.icio.us or ma.gnolia (more on that in a future post after I have spent more time with it).? I like the compact top part and the RSS stuff works well for a basic reader.

In fact I sort of like the fact that I can open and close it very quickly when I have a free moment as opposed to being notified through a desktop reader.? I have gotten in the habit of using it now and want something similiar in Firefox.? Unfortunately Sage falls a little short for me because I cannot set specific refresh times for each feed, or set one in general.? If you are using an RSS reader extension for Firefox that you like, I would love to hear which one and why.? The things I am looking for are a newspaper style reading of feeds and automatic checking of feeds when Firefox is open without having to leave the sidebar open all the time.

The second question is along the same lines in that I am not sure if I want to use a browser based RSS reader or a desktop client.? I had used GreatNews for the longest time of any RSS readers and it still stands above other desktop readers in my opinion.? But now that IE7 has given me the taste of a built in RSS reader, I want more, I think.? I will readily admit I am rather finicky about RSS readers, so this could also change in a week.? I am also open to thoughts on browser vs. non-browser readers, so comment away on that too.

Finally, one more kink in the RSS discussion.? I have been looking at the personalized start pages from Netvibes, Personalized Google and Live.com.? The latter two have projects to have individuals develop new modules where Netvibes creates all of their own, but they also seem to work lots better.? I have been using Netvibes as my home page for awhile, but it doesn’t seem to scale well as an RSS reader for lots of pages and if it is not doing RSS stuff, I am pretty limited to the basic modules, where with Google and Live.com, I could at least look to add other things.? I am still thinking of sticking with Netvibes, but if anyone uses either Live.com or Personalized Google and like it, try to sway me.

With IE7 Beta 2 Preview being released last week, the newest beta for Opera 9 released this morning and supposedly Firefox 2.0 Alpha coming later this week, I decided to do a little roundup about what each browser offers. ?A quick note, I would like to try out Opera a little more, but the newest beta does not log into SharePoint sites any?IIS servers, so I cannot use it daily for work stuff.

First up is good old Firefox.? Firefox is pretty much the de facto standard for web browsing, in my opinion.? Tabbed browsing, some sort of RSS support and pop-up blocking are all must haves for a modern browser.? You can’t really go wrong with Firefox, especially with the number of extensions out there to customize it.? I am interested to see what Firefox 2.0 brings us, hopefully no bloat.

Next up is IE7, which I have been using as my browser for about a week now.? I do like the design and function of the program.? I really like the feeds thing for RSS, it combines the feel and usage of the Firefox Sage extension with the look of the feeds in Safari.? It works rather well, although it will not replace a full fledged reader for power users.? Tabbed browsing works well and although the Quick View is a neat feature, I havn’t used it other to show people that it looks neat.? I think IE7 is on the right track, it hasn’t done anything to make me want to get rid of it, so that is a bonus for it.

Finally Opera 9 Beta 2, which has done stuff to make me want to get rid of it.? Opening some pages have caused it to crash, it won’t authenticate to some sites and the look is still a bit dated.? Opera keeps trying so hard, but it is like they are trying to cram every little thing into it, but it still doesn’t do basic stuff real well.? They enticed me with getting rid of the cost to try it, but even as freeware, I don’t want to keep using it.

Overall I think IE7 will probably end up becoming my default browser in the next few months as it evolves, unless they do something awful to it.? Firefox is also an option depending on what happens with 2.0 and any new functionality it adds.? Opera and Flock (ignored in this post and most everyone else) will continue to sit on the sidelines.

Taking a page out of Ben’s book, I have decided to post about technology, specifically Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2.? Publicly released today, IE7B2 (for short) finally offers some competition to my longtime browser of choice, Firefox.? With some longtime needed features, such as tabbed browsing and support for RSS, Internet Explorer has moved into the modern day.? I have yet to do any hardcore testing of the CSS support, but that is also supposed to be better.? As big of a Firefox fan as I am, it was mainly because IE was so far behind, I was “forced” to switch.? I am not opposed to IE and if IE7 makes enough changes so I do not miss Firefox, I have no problem using it.? I have added some screen shots below, click on each of them for a larger view or go to the Screen Shots set on flickr to get them all easily

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