Online business Toolkit

FeedDemon review

8.0

Editors' Rating

Jeff Bertolucci CNET

Published: 19 Jul 2004

FeedDemon is a well-crafted standalone newsreader that's ideal for novices who've never heard of an RSS feed. The $29.95 (~£16) FeedDemon features an outstanding setup wizard that explains basic newsreader concepts ('A channel is a source of news items. For example, the RSS feed for the New York Times is a channel'). For some, this advice may be a bit basic. Nonetheless, we have to give kudos to the vendor, Bradbury Software, for explaining a relatively new software genre to the uninitiated masses.

Like its competitors, FeedDemon installs in less than a minute. In our tests, download and installation took a few minutes and proceeded without a hitch. We particularly liked FeedDemon's setup wizard, which allows you to subscribe to an unlimited number of popular RSS feeds by simply checking a box besides each feed's name. Of course, there are thousands of other feeds available, so FeedDemon provides links to several other RSS directories.

FeedDemon's interface is very good; however, its default setting, which places the headline and browser panes side by side, is somewhat clumsy. Reading a news story in the undersize browser requires incessant scrolling. Fortunately, you can relocate the browser to the bottom via the View pull-down menu, giving you a wider browser.

This program offers several features that we particularly like. FeedDemon's Watch Channels feature searches for news items containing user-specified keywords and places them in a separate group, making them easier to find. The Cleanup Wizard is handy for removing old RSS feeds -- the default cleanup period is 30 days, but you can change that to a shorter or longer period. We're also fond of FeedDemon's News Bins, which allow you to archive stories simply by dragging a headline and placing it in a storage bin in the left-side column. FeedDemon updates whenever a subscribed channel sends out a new feed.

One gripe: the online help section is weak, but at least there's a support forum where you can post questions and get answers from other users. As mentioned, FeedDemon isn't free, but at $29.95, it won't bust your budget, either.