The latest Read/WriteWeb poll has highlighted some interesting trends. We asked what type of RSS Reader do you use the most? Here are the results so far, from nearly 900 respondents:
1. Web-based (e.g. Bloglines, Google Reader, Rojo) 55% (495 votes)
2. Desktop (e.g. FeedDemon, NetNewsWire) 18% (160 votes)
3. Start page (e.g. Netvibes, Pageflakes) 14% (125 votes)
4. Browser (e.g. Firefox Live Bookmarks, IE, Flock) 7% (62 votes)
5. Portal-based (e.g. MyYahoo, ThePortNetwork) 2% (21 votes)
6. Other (please comment) 2% (18 votes)
7. Email-based client (e.g. Thunderbird, Newsgator) 1% (11 votes)
8. I subscribe to emails from individual blogs 0% (3 votes)
Even though desktop RSS Readers are second-most popular, only 18% of the poll respondents use desktop readers as their primary means of accessing RSS feeds – well behind the 55% who use browser-based readers like Bloglines and Google Reader. A quick check of my site’s Feedburner stats confirms that desktop readers are in the minority. In case you’re wondering, Bloglines and Netvibes are most used by R/WW readers – although note that Google Reader stats are not currently counted by Feedburner and also Rojo has been temporarily removed. So Feedburner is under-counting RSS subscribers currently.
Also note that start pages are not far behind desktop readers, with 14% of the vote. Even taking into account the controversial figures bandied around by start pages about their user numbers (the latest I’ve heard about Netvibes, for example, is 10 Million users – which seems an awful lot), start pages are undoubtedly becoming widely used, amongst the tech set especially, for reading feeds.
Browsers are becoming more popular too, with 7% – and this is bound to increase when IE7 hits full effect later this year.
Interested in your thoughts on these trends – please add to the discussion in the comments below. Also here is the poll, which we’ll leave open for a little longer…
Originally published on ReadWriteWeb (archived copy)