Newzie fulfills the need for RSS feeds

31.12.2008
serves up your RSS feeds and more in a good-looking, easy-to-use tabbed interface. It faces much competition from other good, free news readers, but it easily imports feeds from other programs and is worth trying out.

When you first start out, you can select feeds from a Newzie list, monitor Internet Explorer favorites, or import feeds from an existing OPML file. OPML files are the standard for importing and exporting precious feed lists, and I was able to import mine into Newzie very quickly.

Newzie preserved my folders and feed organization for its Tree view of feeds, and also offers a List view that lists color-coded feeds according to those last updated. You can select a particular feed or folder to view it on a tabbed-display to the right of the feed list, which sits in a bar on the left side of the window.

You can also view new posts in an easily digestible slideshow view, or opt for a minimized 'Today' panel. Mouseover a post in the Today panel for a description, or click it to bring up the post in your browser.

In the regular program interface, selecting a particular post from a feed view brings it up in its own tab. Or you can right-click the post and select an option to view it in your Web browser.

Newzie sports a number of other options, such as a Post Sweeper that can get rid of old posts according to your specifications, or an option to monitor non-RSS Web pages for changes. If you currently use an RSS reader and want to see what else is out there, it's worth your time to export your feeds to an OPML file and give Newzie a whirl. I'll probably stick with reading my feeds in my favorite, , but Newzie might suit you.