RSS readers are becoming increasingly popular nowadays and it’s great we’ve come to a point that even the less techie folks are realizing the power of RSS readers and are feeling comfortable enough to use one. Hell, even my folks are using one.

There’s a whole discussion of which RSS reader to use, whether an online one or an offline one is better, and then to choose the best out those RSS reader categories. Here’s my perspective on things.

I love offline RSS readers. I’ve been using one in the past 2 years, the longest RSS readers in use being the good old fashioned Sharp-Reader. Why offline? I’m on the road alot, not always connected, when I’m connected - it’s not always optimal speed, and I need speed and accessibility. I admired the feature suite that came with all the online readers, but every-time I tried them out by importing my OPML list I quickly came back to my old fashioned reader. The reason I used Sharp-Reader and not others was the easy drag-n-drop of directories and posts that made it extremely easy to sort things and navigate.

Sharp-Reader it was for  quite some time, even though it failed to improve or offer any new features for a long time , till January 2008 when NewsGator’s FeedDemon announced that they’re releasing their clients as a free download.

FeedDemon is one kick-ass RSS reader, and I’ve overwhelmed with many things it has to offer, but - the number one thing I’ll throw your way is that it solves the whole online-offline reader dilemma - it’s both. FeedDemon integrates and synchronizes with the online NewsGator RSS reader and so you can have the best of both worlds. Go and download FeedDemon.

There are also a bunch of other NewsGator apps made free.

Why was it made free? Nick Bradbury has the answers for you with “FREE Demon? Yes, FeedDemon is Now Free!” :

That’s right, FeedDemon is now free.  As in, you don’t have to pay for it anymore.  Just download it and use it free of charge.

And we’re also making NetNewsWire, NewsGator Inbox and NewsGator Go free.  In other words, all of NewsGator’s consumer RSS readers are free. […]

1. It’s the Enterprise, Stupid - Getting our name known in the enterprise is among our primary goals, and making our consumer products free is a great way to accomplish that goal. […]

2. Your Attention is Valuable - We believe that information about what people are reading, emailing, clipping, etc., is valuable enough that we’re willing to trade our consumer RSS readers for it.  And the more users we have, the better able we are to calculate relevance and importance. […]

PS: Your Privacy is Valuable, Too

One of the new features that I enjoy using is “clipping” the articles I like and sharing those with my friends. For example, if you’d like to follow up on the tech articles that I read you’re welcome to RSS the stream of content I flag as interesting.

  Just so you know, the excellent Google Reader - which I recommend to those only needing an online RSS reader - has some of the same functionality of online-offline synch with Google Gears. Read the Lifehacker explanation for more details.

Your thoughts and comments are welcome. Let me know how you do things with RSS.