So today morning I got an email from http://www.newsgator.com, makers of the excellent NetNewsWire RSS Reader for OS X. NetNewsWire was originally a paid for application and a best of the breed at that. It was made a free download last year and has been my primary RSS Reader till date.
The main USP I found in NetNewsWire was the companion http://www.newsgator.com/ngs/subscriber/WebEd2.aspx online RSS feed aggregator site, and the excellent synchronization between the local client and the web edition. This basically meant that I could read RSS feeds where I wanted to – even when away from the OSX laptop, and my reading history would be in sync when I fired up the OSX client. Heck, there was even a iPhone client to do the same sync up.
However, the email communication now states that the online version of the aggregator will no longer be available from 31st August, and the new client version (currently a beta at 3.2b6) will sync with Google Reader. This should be business as usual – right? And Google’s RSS reader is also a very strong web based client, with lots of AJAX goodies to make the browsing experience pleasant.
BUT – the new local client now displays advertisement on the lower left corner – which is very intrusive and annoying. I do understand the need to monetize a free client using occasional and unobtrusive advertisements – but the current implementation seems to be more of “in your face”.
The google sync does work fine and the initial setup is pretty seamless and fast. But the deal breaking advertisements still remain.
Sigh … time to start looking for a replacement client now … Vienna seems to a good candidate.
/usr 