Add to Chrome:
- Access your data on all websites
- Access your tabs and browsing activity
Yeah, right. I'm an idiot?
- Access your data on all websites
- Access your tabs and browsing activity
Yeah, right. I'm an idiot?
Newsblur has no such shenanigans and is developed by a HNer.
It's not free, for those wondering, and free accounts are temporarily suspended.
Oh well. Time to move on.
You can host it yourself if you do not want to pay for it.
See https://getsatisfaction.com/newsblur/topics/free_accountis_n..., for example.
edit: nvm, its in the feedly preferences. Not Chromes. Awks.
I think they ask for site permissions so they can extract RSS URLs out of the page via aforementioned injected button. Either way, Chrome extensions have visible source, so it's not too hard to vet it.
As an example of far too clever UI: Just try and change your password -- it's bizarre that it has no confirmation at all (I have no idea what my password is now). Not something I want to rely on, or deal with, or pay for.
Not that this isn't unexpected... web devs have always been very attached to their bling. That Feedly requires a plugin is... very odd. I don't expect it to last (either the plugin or feedly itself.. choose one), but maybe people are more credulous than I give them credit for.
Newsblur needs to simplify, simplify, simplify... but I suspect it's too late for that.
I'm switching to an rss to email digest script (modified rss2email). It's probably less bling than I want, but at least that minimizes the unnecessary crap, and works on mobile. It also has the benefit of limiting my tendency to refresh the feed lists every hour looking for procrastination sources. :-)
Feedly looks great, but yeah, won't use it in exchange of all my data. Perhaps if they come up with a standalone web version.
The search continues for me in any case.
I like the idea of Newsblur and Feedly a lot, but I don't feel like either of them capture the simplicity that Google Reader used to have, before the unfortunate redesign.
I want to get back to that, and have a system that will seamlessly work across the web and mobile.
It'll be a couple months before it's ready for primetime, but I should be looking for beta users well in advance of that, and you sound like exactly the type of person who'd want to use this.
Also, please charge. Give people 5-10 feeds for free, but let me pay <$10/mo (or like $25/yr prepaid) for a power user version.
1) see list of all feeds with unread counts (I don't see how to do that as a guest user)
2) click on a feed, see all articles in the feed (bold unread) (you sort of do this now, but indicating read v unread would be nice)
3) per-story, read in a dense but nicely-formatted way (Feedly does this great; yours is ok. Ideally be able to Instapaper too)
4) (optional) figure out which new articles in which feeds I care most about and "magic" those as well -- maybe using an interface like yours, or a "magazine" like feedly
I really have two modes of using RSS: reading as much as possible of those feeds, or wanting to be passively entertained. I'd potentially use two tools with a common backend.
I don't understand why someone doesn't do as close to a direct clone of Google Reader UI/UX as possible, and then clone Google Reader backend (e.g. the "Normandy" project).
More info & discussion can be found at the item posted a few days ago:
No thanks Feedly, I'll pass.
I stick with newsbeuter. No web-based readers for me.
It does sound scary but it's really hard to do anything without those permissions.
I tried to install AdBlock Plus in Chromium and it asked the same question...
"Why does my RSS reader need access to the webpage to add the RSS feed for that webpage?"
I think .NET and Java programs can be run until they encounter permission requirements and then prompt but i have rarely seen this feature used.
Obviously it's a usability tradeoff and the programmers of the app would also have to handle the permission rejection gracefully while running but i don't think that's too much to ask for.
Anyway, this is why it's a shame Feedly doesn't offer a non-extension version. One would hope it's something they have planned. Offer the extension for those who want the additional features and are ok with the permissions, and the web app for the rest (and for the convenience of access anywhere, cross-platform).
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt... :)