Which is the most popular RSS news aggregator? Everyone is buzzing about Google Reader, but the old time favorite Bloglines is still leading the charts. A Hitwise study reveals that Bloglines is still the most popular web-based feed reader based on share of US visits, though Google Reader is growing in popularity and closing the gap to Bloglines.
Some interesting observations reveal that
- Google Reader sent 61% more visits to News and Media websites than Bloglines.
- Google Reader users are more inclined toward mainstream media – using the reader as a front page of a newspaper – while Bloglines seems to be used more for following blogs.
- Bloglines users are also more inclined toward Photography websites, while Google Reader users are more inclined to visit Television websites.
- Bloglines users are 24% more likely to continue on to a retail (Shopping & Classifieds) website.
When we analyzed our 15000 feed readers, the stats revealed that 47% used Google reader, while only 10% used Bloglines to read this blog. Remember Feedburner Google stats are actually Google Feedfetcher data that combines subscriber counts from Google Reader and iGoogle (their personalized single page aggregator). Also note that the Hitwise data tracks US visits only, and it would be great to have an analysis of international traffic and subscriber behavior.
Which Feed reader do I use? I personally use Google Reader and recommend it. But Bloglines is also great. This means that if there are only 2 RSS subscribe buttons you need to display – they should be Google and Bloglines.