I subscribe to a few hundred RSS feeds, and one of my planned uses when I got a Blackberry was to be able to read those feeds while mobile. I knew that Google had a mobile interface for Google Reader, but I wasn’t sure how things would work out. After using the device for a couple weeks and having read what is likely 1,000+ entries on the device, here’s what has emerged as my workflow:
- Open Google Reader in the browser: http://www.google.com/reader/m/view
- Scan the list of items.
- Based on the headlines, open the ones that I know will be relatively quick reads.
- For posts that require more in depth reading, or many external links, or I might want to blog about, use the Star feature to mark it for review.
- Once I’ve read everything on a screen, use the “Mark these items as read” link.
- The next screen of items will load and I’ll start the process again.
The biggest thing I’ve realized: Headlines REALLY matter. Since I’m not seeing snippets of the feed items, whether or not an item gets read is based entirely on the headline and blog name.
If anyone has a suggestion on how to make things smoother, I’m always open for suggestions. How do you read feeds on a Blackberry?
[tags]rss, googlereader, blackberry[/tags]
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I really wish that Google would develop a BlackBerry Reader, similar to their BlackBerry GMail client, which happens to act like the normal web version of Reader, by ‘streaming’ the feeds as you scroll through them. The mobile web version is too limiting right now, but your ideas are useful. I’ll try to employ those techniques more. Thanks!
Totally agree! I love Google's Gmail client on BlackBerry, too. Really hope for a similar Google Reader client.
dammit, I was looking for an offline google reader app and ended up here
Check out viigo personal:
http://virtualreach.com/prvper.htm
free, small, efficient. It does the whole saved items thing. Once you figure out how to change your password and log on to the actual website you can manage your account and upload OPML. Then your blackberry will automatically pick up the feeds you want every X hours.
Add another vote for me! A Google Reader client on the Blackberry, similar to the Gmail client, would be killer. I’m surprised we haven’t seen one yet – I would have thought the Gmail app could be largely re-used.
As an alternative, I do really like Viigo on the Blackberry, but the inability to sync read/unread is really diminishing its usefulness to me.
Hopefully one of these will happen, and soon!
Hi,
I just released the first version of my Google Reader app for BlackBerry Storm and wanted to see if it was already indexed by Google. It’s not, but I found this blog post, so I thought I’d let you know. It’s available for purchase in the MobiHand store:
http://tr.im/deadberryunread