rss-reader interview questions
Top rss-reader frequently asked interview questions
Is there a way to navigate my posts (next, previous, minimize, etc.) in Feedly via shortcuts?
Source: (StackOverflow)
After trying out some suggestions in similar questions, here are some feature must-haves*:
- Import from Google Reader.
- If it's web based, Firefox and Chrome compatible.
- If it's an application, Linux, Windows, Android and iOS compatible.
- Export to OPML for future migrations.
- Automatically synced with no setup.
- Show only heading and blurb. This is a must on a small screen.
- Possibility to mark items as unread.
- Stability and speed even in the face of millions of users. Sorry small operators, a 10 second loading time is just not acceptable ever.
Nice to haves*:
- Native web interface, rather than browser extensions or full-fledged clients.
- Free as in beer (or perhaps lunch). I'm willing to pay if a convincing demo is available.
- Possibility to show all feeds as one list or separately.
- Keyboard events always go to the feed items list. That is, once I click on a feed I shouldn't have to click somewhere else to focus the items list.
- Mark read when scrolling past an item.
- Option to show entire article. This can be nice on a big screen.
Don'ts:
- Self-hosting.
- Manual syncing.
- Ask for my Google password or other personal information to sync. Seriously?
- Ask for access to my contacts. I'm trying to cut down on the spam, thank you very much.
- Show the actual site. Feeds are the perfect way to get a uniform experience across vastly different web sites, cutting all the *bleep* to get to King Content, omniscient ruler of all the tubes.
Disqualified so far:
- The Old Reader says "There are 31636 users in the import queue ahead of you" hours after starting the import, down from less than 35000 (don't remember the actual number). Clearly not able to handle the influx of users. Update: After more than 12 hours the number has actually gone up to 33333. Somebody at The Old Reader doesn't like me :)
- Bloglovin seems to only provide some sort of alerts when sites are updated, rather than a feed reader. It also seems a bit unclear whether they support Android or not.
On probation:
- NewsBlur:
- Managed to import all sites, not from the exported OPML (simply failed) but on the third attempt when connecting to Google Reader (first it kept saying it was importing for over an hour, then it imported 0 feeds, then it imported what looks like all of them).
- For some reason "merged" two feeds from the same site during import. They now have the the same name, but also refer to the same feed, so the second one was lost.
- HTTPS by default.
- $24 per year minimum.
- Down once already after using it about two days, so I assume nowhere near as stable as Google Reader.
- Can't set the last page of a feed as read by scrolling past it with the mouse, PageDown or Space - you have to click "Next unread" to dismiss those items.
- feedly wants to know my "name, public profile URL, and photo" + "gender and birthdate" + "country, language and timezone" just to import from Google Reader. It seems this is simply a side effect of connecting to and administering the Google Reader account, so I'm giving it a try.
- Nicely duplicates many Google Reader features.
Lots of duplicate entries, even from a single feed. Seems to be fixedSeems to ignore the "save for later" button after the first use. Seems to be fixed.
Verdict: feedly seems to have the best combination of stability and usability. It's changing rapidly, but although each version seems to introduce new minor bugs there have been no major bugs so far, and the general trend seems to be towards more stability rather than feature creep. That's $24 out the window for a NewsBlur account I won't use, but I could always go back by exporting OPML from feedly.
* Google Reader does all of these, and most of them really well.
Source: (StackOverflow)
In particular, my friends and I are looking for something that has a similar social sharing aspect -- where we can share feed items with one another, from within the same interface. Basically, what Google Reader used to be, before they neutered it.
Source: (StackOverflow)
Because of the announced shutdown of Google Reader, I'm giving feedly a try. It seems okay, but one thing that really pains me after linking it to Reader is that lots of categories are showing even if they have no unread items in them.
In Google Reader, I had over a 100 categories, but I set it to only display the ones that had unread items in them.
Feedly shows all of these categories in non-alphabetical order, which feels extremely cluttered. Is there some way to fix this?
Source: (StackOverflow)
How do I subscribe to a YouTube user’s feed (not playlists, likes, or comments) without a Google account?
E.g.:
https://www.youtube.com/user/$USERNAME/feed
I wish to have it in my normal feed reader. (not second source)
Source: (StackOverflow)
I want be notified from Google Reader via email each time a new item shows up in one of my rss feeds. Is that possible?
Source: (StackOverflow)
We are using Trello and found it rather useful. Is there any way to have an RSS reader connect to our Trello account and show us all our cards?
Source: (StackOverflow)
Now that Google Reader is being retired, what are my options for consuming RSS feeds on the web and synchronizing with my Android device? Social media sharing is not as important to me as being able to keep up with many disparate sites/feeds in a single place and for the data to be stored in the cloud.
I'm aware of other very similar questions here, but they are old and most of the suggested alternatives have already themselves been shut down.
It should go without saying that services that solely interface with Google Reader are not a viable option (unless they have a plan for viability after Reader gets shut down).
(And, while I don't use one, it would be great if the proposed solution was usable on iOS devices, too.)
Source: (StackOverflow)
iGoogle will be retired on November 1, 2013. It is possible to export its settings in an XML form.
Is there an online alternative that can import iGoogle's settings and save the need to migrate many feeds one by one?
my.yahoo.com, for example, is online but does it have an import / export option?
EDIT (I):
Lifehacker now also addresses the issue and suggests NetVibes or Protopage.
EDIT (II):
- So far, Netvibes seems to allow the smoothest transition from iGoogle, allowing for a multi-tab and multi-column view as well as easy import (see their FAQ)
- Feedly resmbles mostly Google reader (does not seem to support multiple columns) and has limited import options
- protopage: supports importing from an opml file of feeds but they then need to be added one by one to the page
Source: (StackOverflow)
Say you have a saved search on Twitter. Is there a client that will allow me to export the data contained in that search into an Excel spreadsheet?
I am wondering if this will somehow involve the functionality Twitter provides of letting you subscribe to an RSS feed of a search. Is there an RSS reader that would do the exporting I'm looking for?
Source: (StackOverflow)
I mean something like that (http://www.google.com/reader/i):
What I've tried:
Feedly - no mobile web version
NewsBlur - paid for more than 12 feeds (I have more)
Netvibes - mobile version not usable in Opera Mobile on Android (wap version isn't counted)
Pulse - don't know even how to import rss from Google Reader there o_O Finally managed to import, but this doesn't look like to be a reader for something more serious than 9gag because of "tiles" view
TinyRss - own hosting needed
Fever - paid, own hosting needed (?)
Bloglines = Netvies
Feedshow - no mobile web version
NewsAlloy - no ability to import feeds from Google Reader?
Daily Rotation - something strange...
My Yahoo - no import from Google Reader
Bazqux - paid, no mobile web version
Feederator - no import from Google Reader
Goodnoows - no mobile web version
PublicRSS - no mobile web version
FeedBooster - not managed to login from mobile device o_O
1kpl.us - no mobile web version
ContentGems - paid, no mobile web version
Alesti - no mobile web version
Kedoya - no mobile web version
AOL Reader - mobile web version is not usable in Opera mobile for Android
Digg Reader - no mobile web version
to be continued ...
Source: (StackOverflow)
Will Google Reader, for example, only render title and description? What about the dc:creator and such tags?
I am asking since our RSS feed has this information already, but I have not found a reader that is actually display such tags automatically. I am not looking for readers that can be configured to show any tag by editing a style sheet or similar, but readers that natively support dc and similar tags.
What I need to know is very hard to find on the net due to too much information hiding what I need to know.
Source: (StackOverflow)
My favorite blog reading applications are ajax heavy sites that are likely to crash the "experimental" browser on the Kindle.
What web site can I use to aggregate my favorite RSS feeds and get an acceptable layout and minimize browser crashes.
Source: (StackOverflow)
There are lots of RSS readers out there, but they just flood you with a big list of all the posts from the site to date. For those of us who are time-starved, but still like to keep in touch in a passive way (meaning not regularly going through your RSS reader like your inbox), this is overwhelming.
What I want this reader to do is, whenever I have some time to catch up, show me the top X posts (using whatever criteria) from the blog for a specific time period. This period could be a day, a week or a month! By this way, even if I took a long break, I could still catch up and feel not being left out!
Are there any apps like this out there?
Source: (StackOverflow)
Possible Duplicate:
Are there other web alternatives of Google Reader?
Bloglines is closing down in a couple of weeks. I've been looking hard for a web-based feed reader that can handle around 400 feeds. I've visited too many links pointing to feed readers that have now discontinued their service. If I move my feeds to a new reader, I'd prefer that they stay alive for at least a few months.
Any suggestions?
Source: (StackOverflow)