From a suggestion on my previous blog entry I decided to test out google reader.
The first problem was that it caused Konqueror to SEGV in etch, I filed a bug report and switched to Firefox.
Next to add my feeds I had to either export them in OPML format or add them one at a time, there is no support for pasting in a list of URLs. If I was writing a RSS syndication program I would also make it parse the config files of some of the common programs, parsing a Planet config file is pretty easy.
I added a feed for a friend who’s server seems to be down. While doing so I tried to add another feed, the google reader accepted the command to add the second feed but didn’t actually do so – it was fortunate that I was pasting it in not typing it…
The killer issue is that it seems to be impossible to merge feeds. I want to read both Planet Linux Australia and Planet Debian, there are some people who are on both planets (EG me). So it makes no sense to do anything other than display both of them in the same view.
At this time it seems that google reader is unsuitable for my use. However it is a fairly slick system and I imagine that it would work quite well for people who have different needs to me. If you want to read the blogs of a few friends then it probably works really well. It just seems not to work well for a set of meshed communities (Debian developers and Linux users in Australia for example).
Please let me know if I somehow missed some configuration options to make google reader do what I want.