*UPDATE August 4th, 2009*

As of August 31st, 2009 the free version of Newsgator will no longer exist.  Instead they are encouraging all users to migrate over to Google Reader.  I am upset about this as I use this every day heavily and nothing out there right now can compare.  I am searching for another RSS reader that works the same way from my BB and the closest I have seen is Freerange which Newsgator was based off.  However it does not work the same and does not sync the read/unread status with Google reader yet.

We will see where this takes me.

*End of UPDATE *

I consider myself a heavy RSS user.  Whenever I come across a site with useful content I instantly look for an RSS feed and add it to my list.  If it does not have one chances are I may not visit it it in the future.

This also includes forums.  More and more forums these days have RSS feeds that report the new or updated posts.  Some forums work better than others but I’m just happy if a forum has one.

In the past I used a plug-in for Outlook (pre 2007) called NewsGator.  I loved it so much that after purchasing my copy it probably became the most used application on my computer.  Then along came Outlook 2007 with built in RSS feeds so I really saw no need for NewsGator and unfortunately the program I used so much was put aside.

Recently I got a BlackBerry and was looking for a RSS reader that I could load on it.  The only catch I had is that I wanted something that would sync with my desktop so I didn’t have to do the same work twice.  After a few Google searches along came NewsGator again.  I quickly surfed over the site and was excited at what I saw.

They have an online RSS management system where you can centralize all your RSS needs and all of your clients will sync to it so you don’t have to read the same feeds over and over again.  You can download clients for your PC/Mac or for your mobile devices to read news on the go.  I use this heavily and the clipping feature allows me to mark articles to read in more detail when I get to my PC.  The articles are added to a special folder that I can access later.  I LOVE THIS.

I have listed some of the pro’s and con’s I have noticed so far. 

Pros

• FREE
• Centralized management of feeds online.
• Sync all changes including read/unread, deleted, folder changes (rename/move) done on any of the clients.
• Online feed reader.
• NewsGator Inbox for Outlook.
• NetNewsWire for Mac.
• FeedDemon for PC.
• IE/Firefox plug-in.
• NewsGator Go for BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Java Mobile
• Clipping feature to mark items to be read later.
• Much more …

Cons

• Require a data plan for NewsGator Go.
• The NewsGator Inbox for Outlook seems to cause my outlook to take longer to startup.  I remember this way back when I used it in the past but its a small price I pay for such a good program.
• Can’t think of much more as I am still getting use to this.

The best way to learn more about this program is to just give it a try.  Let me know what you think.  Did I say I LOVE IT already?

Labels: mobile, software, Technology, web sites