Fastladder--The Fastest Online RSS Reader Goes Local & Open Source
Monday, 11. February 2008, 08:24:47
Fastladder is an online RSS reader that come with a very powerful prefetching function. Its interface is well designed so that users rarely feel any delay. The feeling speed is almost incredible compared to Google Reader or Bloglines, especially if you have a large number of subscribed feeds.
The service sells itself with the copy "1000 feeds in your sight", by which they are trying to say "No matter how many feeds you subscribe, it will never slow down." In fact the developper of this service claims that he is reading 7000 feeds, and Fastladder is made for those people like him. At the moment, I'm reading only 164 feeds--of which about 10 are newspapers, 20 are online magazines, and the rest are blogs--but if I export them to Google Reader, it is already quite stressful to use.
It's free, of course. You just need to go to Fastladder.com and sign up or use OpenID/Yahoo ID to sign in. If you are migrating from another feed reader, you can import the OPML file. There is a bookmarklet to subscribe for an atom/RSS as well. In Opera, I use a keyboard shortcut for subscription,
Go to page, "javascript:location.href='http://fastladder.com/subscribe/'+location.href"
How it works is that you look through your feeds with the keyboard shortcuts. As you go down ('j'/'k' for up/down items, 's'/'a' for next/previous feeds), it prefetches the feeds ahead. If you want to open an article, you can either open by 'v' or pin it by 'p' and open all the pinned items later by pressing 'o'. These shortcuts makes news reading superfast. You can still use Fastladder with a mouse, but in that case you have to use a user JavaScript to turn on the prefetching function (I saw this script somewhere and I'm looking for it). By this pinning, I sometimes open over 100 tabs. What Opera is nice about, unlike Firefox, is that there is no speed loss even if you have that many tabs open. I think Opera IS the browser to use Fastladder.
So that's about Fastladder online. Yesterday I saw quite a stunning news. Fastladder now made an open source version which you can install in your local machine. It acts as a local server that you can open in your browser, and has most of the functions of Fastladder online version.
For windows, there is a one-click installer. How to install is described in their blog. On Mac OS X and Linux, installation is a bit harder. You need to have Ruby 1.8.6 and RubyGems (and FreeImage library for Linux) installed. According to the blogs of people who already tried it, the installation is straightforward, a few lines of command.
As I wrote above, the online Fastladder is (or feels, at least) as fast as many of the local RSS readers already. You might want to install it if you wnat to use it even faster (no time lag even using a mouse), or if you need to read non-public feeds in an intranet, for example.
The open source Fastladder is aiming to work on group sharing functions, full text search, etc, which Fastladder is currently lagging behind Google Reader.
See also
Videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C0BRHj0_5o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VV7qASlEmtw
(Fastladder is originally released as Livedoor Reader in Japan)
Introduction on Life Hacker
http://lifehacker.com/software/newsreader/organize-and-search-your-feeds-with-fastladder-274833.php
User's blogs
http://www.insideview.ie/irisheyes/2007/08/fastladder-spee.html
http://garbledzombie.wordpress.com/2007/10/11/switch-to-fastladder/
WIDGETIZE
deadHarlequin # 14. February 2008, 02:25
I just moved to GR a couple of months ago and I cant find a reason for using a client(PC) side reader anymore. Keyboard shortcuts everything you want is outthere, plus you can access it from everywhere you are.
Now I m not sure if there is an API out yet, but is a must for client side "feeders" like good old Opera's one, to start co-operating with other online services. And this goes to bookmarks, history(like your previous post), notes, everything. I think this would be the next big(small, whatever) thing in browsers evolution, a synergy with web 2.0 .
edvakf # 14. February 2008, 17:31
I was using Google Reader for a while, then switched to Fastladder. Even with only 164 feeds I'm reading, Google Reader was "slow", by which I mean sometimes the transition of screen is not right at the time when I press a key. I thought this was crucial for a user interface. So did you try Fastladder? It was worth writing this post then!
I don't quite understand what you mean by simplicity. Do you use sharing function of Google Reader? Text search? I don't need them for a feed reader, so it was easy for me to switch to Fastladder which is even "simpler" (or still undeveloped) on those points.
The biggest advantage of a client side reader is the speed, I admit. Google Reader is nothing compared with NetNewsWire. Those using local feed reader will go "Fastladder? Still a web service. I read my feeds faster." I think that's what this Fastladder open source project is targetting at. Another advantage is you can set the crawler to fetch feeds any time you like. Also no need to mention the name value of open source for marketing purpose.
I'm not too sure about the API. I was assuming once it's open source you can make cooperative with other online services as you like. I agree with your next browser revolution opinion. I use online bookmarks, Google Web History, and Tumblr for my online note taking, but the more I use those services, the more I'm frustrated with thier transaction speed. I want everything just like local, but accessible everywhere. It's a pitty Google Gears does not support Opera yet.. Opera's closedness is not a good thing for themselves for sure.