Category: FeedDemon

FeedDemon won PC World’s editor’s pick in their recent roundup of RSS readers, beating out NewsGator, Bloglines, Radio Userland and 15 other RSS readers.

I sort of announced this before, but had my head so buried in the release of FeedDemon 1.10 that I completely missed the fact that FeedDemon won the editor’s pick (!). My wife refers to this as my “mad scientist” mode – I get so caught up in what I’m doing that I miss even the most glaringly obvious things.

To be honest, I’m usually not too excited by winning these product comparisons. More often than not, past reviews of my software have been written by people who wouldn’t use it in the first place and don’t know what problem it’s trying to solve. This review, though, is different. It’s obviously written by someone who knows about RSS and took their time to really test each product. So…I’m excited by this one :)

Among the additions in FeedDemon 1.10 is support for the feed protocol for hassle-free feed subscription. This new protocol simply involves using feed:// rather than http:// for feed URLs.

Now, I know some aren’t happy with the existence of this new pseudo-protocol, but let’s face it: subscribing to feeds is a huge pain right now and it’s causing far too much confusion. Feed reading has left the phase where only techies do it, so relying on orange XML and RSS buttons that spew XML when clicked just doesn’t cut it.

The feed protocol aims to simplify this mess so that clicking on a feed:// link enables quick subscription via the user’s feed reader. I’m hoping more applications – and more web sites – support this protocol so that we can put the days of subscribing by URL copy/pasting behind us.

PS: Yes, I know we should be able to rely on MIME types for all of this, but MIME types don’t work.

One question I get asked practically every day is, “Can we pay you to have our feed included in FeedDemon?” The idea sounds like a money-maker (it most likely is), but I’ve never accepted these offers because I just wasn’t comfortable with the idea. In my mind, paid feed placement turns FeedDemon into a cleverly disguised piece of adware – a road I definitely don’t want to take.

Of course, I’m also not wild about turning down these offers – after all, I do this for a living. So I came up with a partial solution: enable FeedDemon affiliates to create their own FeedDemon installs pre-configured with their feeds and branded with their name. This way, feed producers can put exactly what they want into the install, and people who download FeedDemon from an affiliate’s site know what they’re getting. What’s more, affiliates earn a percentage of the sales they generate, and I benefit from (hopefully) increased sales and exposure.

Right now this is only being offered to affiliates who have generated a decent number of sales, and the folks at FeedBurner are the first to take advantage of it. If you think you might be interested in this, the first step is to sign up to be an affiliate, then after you’ve generated a few sales drop me an email asking about custom installs.

Note: If you’re already an affiliate, these custom installs are not the same as the EST builds offered by the current system. EST builds contain your affiliate tracking code, but unlike the new custom installs, they can’t include your feeds, nor can they be branded with your company name.

PC World just awarded FeedDemon 4½ out of 5 stars in their roundup of RSS readers. As expected, FeedDemon’s speed and its flexible newspapers were the highlighted features.

The two strikes against FeedDemon were that it “needs better documentation of advanced features” and that the “support forums required a Usenet news reader.” I agree with the first strike, and plan to address this once the 1.10 rush dies down. The second strike, of course, has already been addressed with the new web-based forums.

Update: Not sure how I missed this, but FeedDemon is PC World’s “Editor’s Pick” :)

I’m pleased to announce the final release of FeedDemon 1.10. Among the highlights in this new release are:

• Support for Atom feeds
• A new integrated web search
• The ability to search previously downloaded feed items
• Improved browser features such as popup blocking and form auto-completion
• Enhanced grouping and styling of feed items

In addition to these “big” new features, version 1.10 offers a lot of smaller tweaks that really boost FeedDemon’s usability. A complete list of what’s new can be found in the release notes, but be sure to watch the FeedDemon Tips blog over the next week since we’ll be highlighting a number of new features that you might overlook (such as this one).

If you already own FeedDemon 1.0, the upgrade to version 1.10 is free – just download the new trial version and install it on top of the previous version, and you’re set to go. Your serial number, channel subscriptions and other information will all be retained.

My thanks and appreciation go to everyone who not only tested FeedDemon, but also stuck with me during that nasty little episode with the neck surgery. A couple months back I had no idea when I’d be able to get FeedDemon 1.10 out the door, so I’m really glad to announce that it’s done :)

PS: If you have any questions about the new release, please visit the web-based forums for help. I’ll also be updating the FeedDemon FAQ over the next few days to address common questions about 1.10.

Dave Winer has requested user reviews of RSS aggregators. If you’re a long-time FeedDemon user, especially one who has tried competing products, would you consider writing a review?

“[Feeddemon] is one of the best applications I have bought in the past year and it has changed the way I use the internet.“

Excerpt from a recent review of FeedDemon by Morgan Pugh.