
Pikareader : new RSS feed reader - meister
https://pikareader.com
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gkoberger
At the risk of insulting a project someone has worked hard at, I'm a bit
worried about this trend.

There's been no fewer than 2-3 "Show HN: I made a Google Reader replacement!"
posts a week over the past two months.

They all miss an important point, though: the problem was never a lack of RSS
readers (there were already a ton). The problem is a lack of a canonical,
fully featured RSS reader that's supported by a large company with lots of
money and resources. If Google can't properly afford to operate an RSS feeder,
why would someone be able to as a side project?

Plus, having a canonical RSS reader is good for the technology. ThePirateBay
does it for torrents, GitHub for git, Reader for RSS, etc -- a central place
that pushes the technology forward and provides a model for everyone else,
rather than a fractured user base spaced out over dozens of sites made as side
projects.

Anyway, sorry @meister -- this comment has nothing to do with Pikareader and
all your hard work, and more to do with RSS in general.

~~~
barrkel
We already had a fully featured RSS reader supported by a large company not
lacking in money or resources. It got closed down _because_ the company had
lots of money and resources: it wasn't a strategic product, and any
contribution it could have made to revenue would have been immaterial.

In the medium term, I think canning Reader has hurt Google amongst the
technically literate. It certainly has pushed Google from the 'creepy but
mostly good' to just 'creepy' for me. It's a notch above Facebook now, and no
longer worthy of a logged in session - relegated to a secondary browser, I can
feel free to block all Google-related third party requests.

As for a Reader replacement, I'm currently going with Ino Reader. Free and
unlimited (thus far). I don't know if or how it will make money, but it's been
the best replacement I've tried yet.

And "there were already a ton" of readers? No. Almost all readers had to
differentiate themselves from Reader, because it was so good. There's a
massive gap in the market, such as it is, right now. It should and will be
filled by a small company, probably a lifestyle business.

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cynix
The true value of Google Reader is that it is a huge archive of past RSS
entries, many of which are no longer available from the source. No matter how
powerful or beautiful or user friendly your new RSS reader is, you do not have
access to these lost entries.

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projectdelphai
This didn't look half bad until I saw the 5 rss feed limit. I don't even mind
looking at ads half the time, but a limit on my feeds is not good. Maybe
something closer to a 30-50 feed limit I could deal with. maybe.

Some screen shots to look at the UI wouldn't be half bad either.

~~~
meister
Thanks for the suggestion. I have to add some screen shots.

The 5 rss feed limit is part of our business model. Feeds consume resources
and resources cost money. So we have to cover our expenses to ensure a
reliable and durable service.

~~~
ishansharma
5 is still too low in my opinion. How about giving users a 10-15 day trial of
premium version? That way, you won't be wasting resources without any return
and users can try reader without limits too!

~~~
meister
The 5 feeds limit is now over. You can test the Unlimited Plan as it comes
with a 7-day free trial :)

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hamburglar
I would be happy to try this out and to pay your entirely reasonable yearly
fee if I like it, but only if you provide a local login option that doesn't
rely on google, facebook or twitter. I hate tying services to my other
accounts, and I'm not making an exception for you. Not trying to be difficult,
just letting you know the reality: tying login to other services loses you
customers.

~~~
hamburglar
Note also that because of this, I still haven't been able to see what the
service is even like, because there is no demo.

~~~
CrazedGeek
Is the form under the social signup buttons not a 'local' signup?

~~~
meister
It creates a local account, no need for a social account.

~~~
hamburglar
Did you add this after the original post or am I just blind? Anyway, signed up
and trying it out! Can you comment on the status of the interface on mobile
browsers / using touch?

~~~
meister
Local sign up was there since the beginning ^^

We use some responsive design for screen size. I have to optimize some UI
action for tablets and mobiles. We will maybe publish a mobile app if
customers ask for it.

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greggman
I tried it. It failed on the first site I tried, polygon.com. It didn't
discover the RSS. Even the first RSS readers back in the day did that. Yes, I
checked the source of polygon.com. The RSS feed is linked correctly for
discovery. Then I tried to add the link manually. Pikareader never responded
after picking "Add"

I wish them all the success and luck in the world. I'll try again in a few
months and see if it works.

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meister
We have put hard work in this new project to replace Google Reader as a daily
useful tool. Feel free to comment and suggest features or ideas !

~~~
nrlucas
Is there a way to play with the service without signing up?

~~~
meister
Not at the moment, but you can login in one click ... It is on my todolist :)

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dewey
One thing which really bothers me is that you are always using a space in
front of your exclamation marks. It's happening on Pikareader and your other
site PikaCode.

<http://english.stackexchange.com/a/4646>

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iand
Is there any way to show the full content of a feed in a river of news style?
I only subscribe to full-text feeds because I use RSS to give me reading
material, not headlines.

~~~
meister
I add this feature on my todolist ! Thanks for suggestion.

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sdolber
So what are the advantages of using this over other existing services such as
Feedly?

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hnriot
You might want to try your landing page on an iPad...

~~~
ishansharma
This is a criticism or what? I tried it on iPad and landing page was fine. The
text fields overflow a bit but that's the only fault.

Would love if you elaborate or post a screenshot.

