Google Reader sync would be awesome. Google Reader seems to be the standard for feed syncing, and it would make NewsBlur compatible with a ton of other feed reading apps. I also have a decent history of starred, liked and shared articles, which I would hate to lose (along with interesting people I follow). And while I wouldn’t mind switching from Google Reader to NewsBlur as my main feed reader on my laptop, I’d like to stick to the iPhone app I use, which syncs with Google Reader.
Not much needs to be synced — just the list of subscribed feeds, starred/saved stories, read/unread state and perhaps “likes.” NewsBlur seems awesome, and I’m really tempted to switch, but this is all that’s holding me back. It could even be a premium feature.
About two-way sync: it wouldn’t make sense. Since NewsBlur hides stories below your intelligence threshold, many stories would be unread in Reader but simply hidden in NewsBlur. That, and the whole story sync problem would be a huge bear. It comes down to NewsBlur being its own reader. The import from Google Reader is the only time NewsBlur talks to Reader.
I’m thinking about further integration with Google using Google Contacts (for a Email Story feature), but that’s about it.
This was my number one request when I started using NB, but after I used Newsblur more and saw all that it did it became obvious that this would be, if not altogether impossible, a huge deal. . . before I knew it, I was just using newsblur exclusively. I have no good mobile solution now, though.
So, mobile. I hope you’re an iPhone user, because I’m going to start working feverishly on the iPhone app once again. It’s 70% done, but it needs a lot of refinement before it can go out. And the NewsBlur API just went out, so maybe an enterprising Android dev wants to make an Android app.
I understand the reasoning behind the lack of a 2-way sync, but as a person who has to use different tools in different places, at a minimum a sync of read / unread would make Newsblur infinitely more useful for me.
Still, I’m glad that I have the premium membership…
I would settle for all my currently-starred stories showing up in my saved folder. My hope is that it would be two-way (so if I ever decided to go back to Reader, I could see my saved stories in my starred folder), but hopefully I won’t do that.
i see. how about manual push/override. than i can use greader search, and greader sync with other apps. i do not really add/change feeds that often. pushing manually would be good enough for me.
