BlogBridge for Mac

Good looking, intuitive, customizable, and lightweight, BlogBridge is as close as we've seen to the complete newsreader package. It aims to keep you informed about the state of your subscriptions while sticking to a basic, straightforward system. On the first run, you are given the option to register and pick from a predefined list of blog "guides" or groups. The next step is to enter custom terms that are of particular interest to the user, so that the program can highlight these terms, giving them more prominence. This is a welcome alternative to the bundling of all kinds of feeds, most of which are of no interest to the user.

One of our favorite features was the easy-to-use rating system where users can give feeds a score from one to five stars. The ratings can then be used as a filter to show only the top feeds, making it easy to scan through the most relevant news quickly. Other great features include tags for feeds and a synchronization system for using the reader on multiple computers without the need to sort through the same information more than once. BlogBridge is an Open Source project, making it even more appealing.

However, there are a few minor usability issues that could be improved upon. The program relies on an external browser to display blog sites but doesn't detect the default browser. Additionally, it opens articles twice, which can be annoying. Despite these hiccups, BlogBridge remains a quality package and a great choice for an RSS reader.