entering the feedlot

Checking out two Web-based aggregators: Bloglines and Google Reader.
Here are some first impressions.


Looks
Looks aren't everything, but it's a fact that the first impression persists. If Bloglines were a baby, its interface could be politely described as "interesting." It's just not very attractive. Which is surprising, seeing how polished the Ask search engine is. They're working on it, I know.

Bloglines also commits the no-no of having menu items jump around from page to page. It's annoying if not disorientating.

Google has the user-friendly interface thing down pretty well. It looks more polished, even if it isn't. I found it easier to navigate, and it doesn't produce claustrophobia or text overload (though it makes me wonder whether Schmidt & Brin are reading my feeds from their office, and what they're saying about them).

Functions
The main function that we're considering here, subscribing to RSS feeds works easily enough in both.

Bloglines doesn't (easily?) allow marking a feed as "unread." I really don't like that. Going back to a previously opened feed opens the blog itself. There may be a way around this, which would lighten the transgression, but the fact that I couldn't find it easily still earns demerits.

I like that Google Reader allows starring things and that the feed doesn't go away after being opened once.

These are the superficial comparisons of a beginner. Both services are nice, though Google seduces with it's promise of super ease and convenience -- all your info on Google's servers (and you may have to dig a little to find out how they'll treat it).

Traffic
Tried to compare Web traffic on Alexa.com, but it doesn't compare the "Reader" sub-domain. I couldn't figure out a meaningful comparison with other sites, but Alexa does show that Bloglines traffic is climbing.