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Another Win32 application is set aside in favor of a web application. Yesterday I stopped using FeedDemon to consume my RSS feeds. Don't get me wrong, FeedDemon is a sweet application and I used it faithfully for a few years. However, Google Reader FREAKING ROCKS.

The Google Reader web application is simply the most efficient way to move through unread news items quickly. As you read items it scrolls them down one at a time and marks them unread (all using the space bar). It's a very well done AJAX application.

Google Reader also boots in under 5 seconds from any computer with a web browser. FeedDemon is only running on two of my PCees and with all my feeds and a big fat cache of posts it takes substantially longer to bet to be usable. On Vista I even have to endure the whole "Not Responding" nonsense for a few seconds... finally after Launching FeedDemon I must wait for it to talk to all the RSS feeds and download content... contrast to Google Reader where when I login I can immediately start reading feeds without waiting on second.

However, the clincher is this. Google Reader Mobile is AWESOME. I read a lot of RSS feeds on my Blackjack. It's the perfect way to kill time when I'm bored. NewsGator mobile has not been updated in years and lacks some critical functionality. Here is what Google Reader Mobile does better:

1. Shows you one post at a time
2. Allows you to mark a post as unread or flagged before moving on to the next post
3. Shows you a preview of what the next post you are about to read is
4. Shortcut keys for all actions (awesome when you have a keyboard)

A picture is worth a thousand words as illustrated below. There is just the right amount of contextual information about the next post, as well as shortcuts and actions I can take on the current post.

#2 is absolutely critical. I would often find myself reading a feed in NewsGator mobile and keeping every item unread because there was one item I wanted to review on my PC later on. There was simply no way to flag a post or to leave it unread. All it has is a "Mark all posts read" option.

Since I use a Blackjack I had tried the native version of the Windows Mobile reader of NewsGator and that was 100x more painful then the problems of using a Win32 RSS reader. It's much slower and inefficient and the sync of read/unread state simply doesn't work.

As I continue using Google Reader I'm looking forward to seeing my reading behaviors and stats and I'm looking forward to them adding features such as ratings and other social type features to improve my experience consuming feeds in the least amount of time possible.

Bottom line, the web is faster than traditional client applications for consuming RSS feeds. Further I don't have to worry about downloading or launching anything other than a web browser.

How many client applications have you replaced with their respective web enabled versions? So far I've replaced:

1. Microsoft Streets & Trips with Windows Live Maps and Google Maps
2. FeedDemon with
Google Reader
3. IMAP email with Windows Live Hotmail
4. Crappy Family Tree program with Geni.

and I'm considering replacing Microsoft Money with Wesabe.