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After switching to the BlackBerry from a Treo last year I undertook a pretty exhaustive review of the available readers and compiled my reviews. If you don’t use RSS or know what it is, read this useful primer and then come on back to find a tool to harness that power. If you are a developer of a reader that I missed, let me know and I’ll check it out. If I’ve misstated the capabilities of an application below, let me know and I’d be happy to reassess it.

I’m a power RSS user with over 30 feeds to monitor favorite blogs, news sources, social networks, resources, etc. As a result, my daily routine commuting to and from work consists of catching up on feeds and podcasts, for which the Blackberry is invaluable. I prefer an RSS application rather than an online resource like Google Reader. This is because service can be spotty and I wanted the speed that an application offers after synchronizing during work and overnight, rather than downloading each article and post individually. That’s especially useful during flights. My other requirement for an RSS reader is that it synchronizes. I want to read, save and delete once. Since the BlackBerry is fine for reading, but not necessarily sharing or using that information in my own work I need other options for reviewing feeds, but don’t want to see the same post in 2 or 3 places.

I looked at 8 RSS readers; Litefeeds, BerryVine RSS Reader, NewsGator Go!, FreeRange, viigo, SendMeRSS.com, Plusmo, and Bloglines.

Litefeeds

Litefeeds’ interface is pretty decent and easy to read. It has a nice blog feature that allows you to post to your own blog directly from the application, which is nice for immediate sharing and responding. Its ability to easily save posts to Del.icio.us is a feature that I wish more of the applications had. But in terms of usability, posts have no graphics or links. Graphics I can usually live without, but not including links means that in a post full of interesting links you must first open the post in a browser and then access the links. Their website may not be a contender with Google Reader or Bloglines, but it does a yeoman’s job for support of a mobile application.

BerryVine RSS Reader

I’ve got to admit that I found BerryVine RSS Reader pretty useless. I couldn’t open feeds, read them, save them or use any of the features that seemed to be available from the menus. Maybe it was all the preloaded content or maybe it was the colored headers and logos, but the layout of the screen looked cheap, unprofessional and did not facilitate reading or wanting to figure out why it wasn’t functioning as it should. I just couldn’t get the damn thing to work nor to feel any incentive, beyond this review, to try any harder than I did. As one of the 2 readers that you have to pay for I’d expect it to be a bit more intuitive.

NewsGator Go!

Attensa was one of the first RSS readers that I ever used and I really loved the Outlook based application, but like I said, I want a reader that synchronizes across the platforms that I use to read feeds. NewsGator solves this issue with its set of products, FeedDemon, NewsGator Go!, NewsGator Inbox and NewsGator Online and as of a few weeks ago they are all FREE!

NewsGator Go! is a serviceable RSS reader application for BlackBerry, but there are a few drawbacks that drive me a little crazy. For each post I have to select “Access Links” in the menu in order to click through. Why isn’t that just a setting, reducing clicks without hindering reading? NewsGator Go! allows you to clip posts, but can’t share them, which would be a nice and useful addition.

FreeRange

FreeRange is a pretty good reader with about the same features that other readers have. Accessing links requires an extra click, which really sticks in my craw, but it does have integration with del.icio.us, which I really like. FreeRange allows you to set options for the download and inclusion of images in posts and promises integration with Google Reader with the WebReader product that costs $39.95 per year. The price wouldn’t be too bad if it wasn’t for the fact that this is a yearly charge and most readers are FREE!

Viigo

I like viigo a lot for a few reasons. It’s silly, but the basic functionality of showing complete posts without having to download more and links always being accessible make viigo stand out. Both features are such little things, but they lead to the reduction in many, many clicks. Taking care of the basics increases the usability of the application in ways that some of the other application’s bells and whistles don’t. Viigo’s aggregation of Bloglines and now Google Reader extends the application’s basic functionality significantly and integration with del.icio.us is very useful.

Plusmo

Plusmo has a different take on the RSS reader interface that scrolls images across the screen. It’s probably great if you’re into TMZ and Perez Hilton, but for geeky folks like me it’s a lot of wasted space. Full posts are downloaded and easy to access, but links are unavailable and there is no way to share. This might be an option better suited to a cell phone than a smart phone.

Send Me RSS

Send Me RSS.com is an interesting site that allows you to have RSS feeds sent as email. The posts arrive in your Inbox as complete feeds with images and links, not a feed reader per se, but a option for offiline reading on your BlackBerry.

Bloglines

Bloglines is an online aggregator, not an application. The only reason why I am including it here is that it makes a big difference in the capabilities of viigo, which aggregates your Bloglines feeds, so I include it in the charts below, but won’t write too much about it.

Reader Type

Litefeeds, BerryVine, NewsGator Go!, FreeRange, viigo and Plusmo are all applications. SendMeRSS.com is a service whereby articles from feeds are sent to you via email. This can be useful because you can read, delete and save posts using your email client, which obviously stays in sync. Bloglines, as I mentioned earlier is an online reader which gives viigo functionality described below. It also has a mobile site, which is useful when connectivity isn’t an issue. Size is based on my current installation. I’m afraid that comparing the size of the readers may not be that useful as the total number of feeds for each is not the same and are not all up to date therefore they are probably each maintaining different amounts of feed data. Results are sure to vary based on the number of feeds that the individual user subscribes to.

Types

	Litefeeds 2.6	BerryVine RSS Reader	NewsGator Go!	FreeRange	viigo	Plusmo	SendMeRSS.com	Bloglines
Application	X	X	X	X	X	X
Email							X
Website								X
Size	83.50kb	-	198.33kb	226.75kb	323.59kb	-	N/A	N/A

Adding Feeds

The way that you add feeds to your reader is pretty critical. If you are already subscribed to 30+ feeds you do not want to have to re-enter them one at a time when you switch readers. Therefore the ability to import an OPML file is critical. An OPML file is a list of all of the feeds that you are subscribed to in the folder structure that you use to organize them. All of the readers that I reviewed import OPML except for BerryVine, but only 3 of the readers export OPML, meaning that if you want to switch from of the other applications it will be very difficult later.

You’re likely to come across new feeds from time to time that you’ll want to subscribe to. Only viigo allows you to subscribe from the BlackBerry and its website, which is obviously the most useful. BerryVine and FreeRange only allow you to subscribe from the BlackBerry application. Litefeeds, NewsGator Go!, Bloglines, Plusmo and SendMeRSS only allow you to add feeds using their website. If I had to pick one option for adding feeds, doing it from a website is easier at first, but the application can be better in the long run, especially if that is your primary means of reading feeds.

Adding Feeds

	Litefeeds 2.6	BerryVine RSS Reader	NewsGator Go!	FreeRange	viigo	Plusmo	SendMeRSS.com	Bloglines
Import OPML	X		X	X	X	X	X	X
Export OPML	X			X			X	X
From Application		X		X	X
From Website	X		X		X	X	X	X

Best: viigo
Good: Litefeeds, NewsGator, FreeRange, SendMeRSS, Plusmo
Bad: BerryVine

Display and Access

One of the features that distinguishes the readers and makes some more useful than others when reading, is whether they access the complete post, images and links. In order to conserve memory, Litefeeds, NewsGator Go! and FreeRange all display truncated posts while viigo, SendMeRSS and Plusmo all provide you with the complete post. As I mentioned earlier, for me, the benefit of a reader application rather than a website is the speed and ability to read while offline. If I need to download the complete feed or need a browser to view it then that benefit is completely negated. Images are a little less of an issue, but this varies from feed to feed and post to post. FreeRange, Bloglines, SendMeRSS and plusmo all provide images. I don’t understand at all the rationale requiring a settings change to access links and not including them at all is a game killer for me. If the feed is of summaries rather than complete posts, not providing automatic access to links is a royal pain.

Display and Access

	Litefeeds 2.6	BerryVine RSS Reader	NewsGator Go!	FreeRange	viigo	Plusmo	SendMeRSS.com	Bloglines
View Full Text	1 click away and does not show images, text with the tags, or links	In browser	1 click away	1 click away	Automatic	Automatic	Automatic	Automatic
View Images				X		X	X	X
Access Links	Setting		Setting	SettingSetting	Automatic		Automatic	Automatic

Best: SendMeRSS
Good: Plusmo, viigo
Bad: Litefeeds, BerryVine, NewsGator Go!

Saving and Sharing

A means of collecting information from your feeds is another critical aspect of a reader. Some people like to save feeds, other like to bookmark or share them. The decision is up to the user and personally I use both for different reasons. I tend to save information for use in blogging and share useful posts that I know that I’ll want to reference later.

Most of the applications allow you to save posts for reference. The fact that BerryVine and Plusmo don’t, really limits them. Litefeeds has a nice feature where you can send posts with comments to your blog. NewsGator, FreeRange, viigo and SendMeRSS allow you to email posts that, if coupled with email to post functionality within your blog, gives you the same capability. Bloglines also allows you to “blog” posts, but it is to their own blog, not yours. The ability to bookmark a feed on Del.icio.us, which Litefeeds, FreeRange and viigo have is a nice addition.

Some of the applications also include “Flight Mode.” While you can turn off your BlackBerry’s wireless in order to achieve basically the same effect, this captures del.iciu.us entries and other post saving that you do while offline and syncs them up later.

Saving and Sharing

	Litefeeds 2.6	BerryVine RSS Reader	NewsGator Go!	FreeRange	viigo	Plusmo	SendMeRSS.com	Bloglines
Clip/ Save	X		X	X	X		X	X
Blog	X							X
Email	X		X	X	X		X	X
Bookmark on Del.icio.us	X			X	X
Flight Mode			X	X

Best: Litefeeds, FreeRange, viigo
Good: NewsGator Go! SendMeRSS
Bad: BerryVine, Plusmo

Additional Feeds

A few of the applications include some “starter feeds,” which are great if they fit your interest, but useless if they don’t. The widgets included with Litefeeds and BerryVine are in this category.

What is useful is the keyword searches that Litefeeds, NewsGator Go!, FreeRange and Bloglines include. Until there are RSS feeds from Google alerts this is the closest to that very useful tool that you are going to get in a feed reader. The email feeds provided by Litefeeds, NewsGator and Bloglines are a way to get around that. Email newsletters sent to this custom address are included as a custom feed.

Friend’s clips, available from Litefeeds and Bloglines is a nice social networking feature, but only useful if your friends are on the same network. Finally, the aggregators that FreeRange and viigo include are very useful. For viigo in particular the inclusion of Bloglines as an aggregator makes it extremely functional since it effectively combines the features from two programs. Now if only one of the applications aggregated Google Reader.

Additional Feeds

	Litefeeds 2.6	BerryVine RSS Reader	NewsGator Go!	FreeRange	viigo	Plusmo	SendMeRSS.com	Bloglines
Keyword Search	X		X	X				X
Email Feed	X		X					X
Friends Clips/ Feeds	X							X
Aggregators				Yahoo! News and Google News	Bloglines and MyYahoo! Only	Widgets

Best: viigo (solely due to the aggregation of Bloglines)
Good: Litefeeds, NewsGator Go!
Bad: BerryVine, SendMeRss, plusmo

Cost

Of the 7 applications that I reviewed 5 are free now that NewsGator made all of their applications available at no cost. BerryVine is pretty cheap at $6.50. FreeRange is free for 10 feeds, but with so many readers free for unlimited feeds the idea of paying $39.99 for a year seems insane.

Cost

	Litefeeds 2.6	BerryVine RSS Reader	NewsGator Go!	FreeRange	viigo	Plusmo	SendMeRSS.com	Bloglines
Cost	Free	$6.50	Free	Free for 10 feeds	Free	Free	Free	Free

Summary

To me the three keys features for an RSS reader are easy use, easy collection and easy setup. Viigo provided the best ability to display and access content, add and share feeds and finally the price can’t be beat. The management of feeds on viigo is optimized by Bloglines and without it I wouldn’t have made viigo my reader of choice. I’ve now used viigo for a couple of months and am very happy with it, at least until Google Reader has an offline application.