Online RSS reader?

April 13, 2006 4:52 PM

Is there a server-based RSS aggregator that works like Safari RSS?

I use and like Safari's RSS reader, but I'm fed up only being able to check it at home, on Safari. Is there a web-based option that works in roughly a similar way?

If you don't know it, Safari RSS lets you:
* view all new items from your feeds on one long page
* shows them as text+images, not how the actual web page looks
* marks them read once they've been displayed (ie you don't have to manually mark them all)
* has a search, and option to display how much of the article entries you see.

I'd prefer something that ran on my own server (Dreamhost, so most things available including perl, php etc), but a website would do at a pinch.

posted by bonaldi to computers & internet (12 comments total)

Have you tried Bloglines? I think it will do everything you want.
posted by stopgap at 5:13 PM on April 13, 2006

I use and love reBlog. It does more than just act as a feed reader, but it works great if that's all you want to do. It doens't mark the items marked as you view them, but you mark them read 50 at a time.

I've used to use Gregarius. It does have the option to mark read as the items come up on the aggregate page.

You'll have to install either on a webserver that has PHP and MySql. I'm hosted at Dreamhost too, so mail me (email in profile) if you need help setting either up.
posted by tayknight at 5:19 PM on April 13, 2006

I read this AskMe post from my personally hosted instance of Gregarius. It's not bad, still needs some polish, but serves me well enough for someone previously used to NetNewsWire.

I can't reach the site at the moment but it was up a few days ago, so if you also cannot reach it, try again later.
posted by cyrusdogstar at 5:20 PM on April 13, 2006

Google Reader seems to match your criteria. I use it every day and enjoy the shortcut keys.
posted by thebabelfish at 5:28 PM on April 13, 2006

Planet Planet (http://www.planetplanet.org/) would also meet yours needs. You can see it in action at http://planet.mozilla.org. It has template files so you can customize its output as you wish and it's pretty good at parsing just about any feed.
posted by zachlipton at 5:33 PM on April 13, 2006

stopgap, that's an appropriate name: bloglines looks like it'll do everything I need. It's just a shame it looks a bit shit.

Thanks everyone, much appreciated!
posted by bonaldi at 5:49 PM on April 13, 2006

Put me in the Gregarius camp. Have a look at my setup (self-link) if you'd like to test it out. It does everything you ask plus more.
posted by panoptican at 7:25 AM on April 14, 2006

Don't worry about Bloglines' appearance. It's great. Couldn't live without it. My browser spends 90% of its time in it.
posted by dmd at 8:14 AM on April 14, 2006

Oh wow. Thanks you guys for the Gregarius pointer. I've been looking for an RSS agg/reader to plunk on my own server for a little more than a year now. Most of them had been crap. Gregarius is fresh. Thanks AskMe!
posted by mnology at 8:41 AM on April 14, 2006

Gregarius looks cool, but I am stuck on my reBlog install. I've found it very useful to scan through 500+ feed items per day, easily tag the ones I am interested in seeing later, and archiving (marking as read) the rest.
posted by noahv at 9:05 AM on April 14, 2006

I second reBlog. I've used it for a few months now, and I keep up with about 100 feeds.

It's got a nice little Ajaxian interface, complete with keyboard shortcuts to "archive" (things you don't want to read) and "publish" (things you do want to read) items as you go.

It then throws everything into a published feed that's available as RSS.

Great reader all around.
posted by mrhaydel at 9:26 AM on April 14, 2006

If you're into self-hosted RSS solutions, check out rss2email (disclosure: I'm now the project maintainer). It will deliver your feeds to your email client, which then lets you do everything that bonaldi originally asked for, plus other nifty things like filtering and archiving.
posted by turbodog at 9:31 AM on April 14, 2006