Newsgroup Reader, RSS Aggregator, Annotator, Tagging: Omea Reader

Omea Reader
http://www.jetbrains.com/omea/reader/

I have to say, I'm excited about this one. I have been struggling with various feed readers of different types, trying to find one that wasn't too obtrusive, easy to use, filled to the brim with features, and of course, free. :)

I tried to use the RSS reader in IE in addition to using Wizz Computer's add-on to Firefox, but I wasn't satisfied with either (IE was a little lacking in features, whereas Wizz's had some features I had trouble figuring out quickly). Finally, I decided that I would like to have a separate application to view my feeds altogether. Mostly because I didn't like being distracted from my Email by reading feeds, and vice versa, if they were both running in the same app.

So, I give you Omea Reader - what a wonderful application. Chock full of features, it puts many paid RSS aggregator apps to shame!

Also, I have a Zune (laugh if you will), and I wanted to use something that was a bit more stable than 'FeedYourZune' for downloading podcasts. I haven't yet tried this - - but podcasts notwithstanding, Omea's offering is top-notch (before you ridicule me, I actually love my Zune).

The overview of Omea:

"Free and easy to use RSS reader, NNTP news reader, and web bookmark manager. It's fast, it aggregates, and it keeps you organized. Check out the additional features: lightning-fast desktop search, flexible information organizer, contextual access, and quick extensibility for developers who want more."

Some of the features, direct from the website:

Why Omea Reader

• All-in-one feed reader: Read RSS feeds, Atom feeds. Also read newsgroups and bookmarked web pages, all in one easy to use information environment.
• Stay Organized: It's easy to organize and categorize your RSS feeds, and you can automate the process with a few clicks.
• Search: Find specific information quickly with Omea Reader's desktop search functionality.
• Browser Integration: Subscribe to feeds, directly from your browser, within seconds. Omea will find the feed for you even if you can't see an RSS link
• Contextual access: Create custom Views to separate your resources based on their characteristics. Create custom Workspaces to divide your work info from your personal info, or from your projects. See only what you want, with one click.
• Manage Podcasts: Download podcasts directly through Omea, and keep them organized.
• Helpful extras: Create Clippings - excerpts from larger documents that you can file, search, and link. Use an array of Flags to help you set priorities and remember to follow up. Tack your own free-form notes onto any resource with Annotations.
• Compatibility: Omea Reader runs on the same database as Omea Pro, so you can try Reader now and upgrade to Pro later without losing any of your resources or preferences.
• Extensibility: Developers can extend and customize Omea Reader by writing plugins using the Omea Open API.

I was easily able to export my existing Feeds as an OPML file, and import them into Omea without trouble. I was literally up and running within seconds of installing.

The Good:

• I frequent the newsgroups, so being able to do this through Omea was nice - expandable threads are supported (a must if you read newsgroups).
• Browse directly through Omea, finding RSS feeds with ease
• Synchronize bookmarks between IE and Omea (what about Firefox?)
• Annotate websites with your own notes

• Organizing feeds & folders is extremely easy
• You can flag items for follow up, etc. with a number of colors
• You can categorize any item (akin to tagging)

• You can very easily and quickly filter newsgroup replies by sender using the 'correspondents' feature.
• Using the 'clipping' feature allows you to grab a snippet of information from a website and annotate it. The URL source of the clipping is retained when looking at the information later (great for research!)
• View summary of all resources (feeds, newsgroup postings, etc.) in one pane
  

The "eh...":

• I noticed a couple of times when replying to/viewing comments on a couple WordPress blogs I received a script error, but it may be a WP plugin causing the issue, since it is not easily replicated
• No moving graphic to tell you that the integrated browser is doing something

Wishlist:

• Firefox bookmark synchronization
• Share clippings, annotations, and flags with other Omea users (perhaps a plugin to http://www.diigo.com?)

The wonderful thing about Omea is that not only does it allow you to view your feeds, etc. - but it can easily make something more of these feeds, like a research tool, organize concepts and ideas for your own blogging topics, etc. -

If anyone has any ideas for alternates for Omea, let me know - since this is a bit more than an aggregator, the alternates would need to have some similar categorization and annotation features to qualify.