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Google Reader was my first feed reader when I started subscribing to RSS feeds a few years ago. Since then, Google has introduced several new features related to social networking. However, Bloglines by far is more popular among users, though the gap is closing.

One of the first things you'll notice about Google Reader is its clean interface that resembles several Google products such as Gmail. This is not without a reason. The growing number of Gmail users will feel right at home with Google Reader. The tight integration with Gmail, where you're able to read your feeds alongside your emails, is one way for Google to create "stickiness" among its fan base.

Bloglines, on the other hand, appears cluttered especially when your feeds are loaded up. There is too much unnecessary information at the top of a given feed, like how many items there are, the exact time and date it was last updated, and the blog's subtitle. I don't need to know all of that. Google Reader tells me when the post was updated based on the number of hours/days that have elapsed from now. That gives me a better idea of how old a post is. That's contextualizing information.

Searching for posts in your feeds is a good way for you to dig up something you think you've read before but not sure who wrote it and when. I do this all the time when I need to reference someone's posts in a new article. Google's simple search interface lets you do that easily. In Bloglines, however, you'd think that the search box on the top right hand corner of the screen will let you search for posts in your feeds until you realize you're searching the entire blogosphere. You actually have to click on the search tab to restrict your search to your feeds. Not the most intuitive thing for the user, I would say.

Both Google Reader and Bloglines allow you to share your feeds with others, but in addition, Google Reader lets you share specific posts with your friends on what Google calls a Public Page. You can also assign your own tags to the posts, and choose to share only posts with a particular tag. Bloglines implements sharing through public blogrolls where you can see a list of someone's folders and the feeds he/she subscribes to. It doesn't allow you to add your own tags to each post or share specific posts.

Google's approach to sharing involves more social networking elements. You can add friends to your profile and they'll automatically receive updates of your shared/starred posts. I am not sure how popular this has been among users so far, but I'm not ready to start another social network.

By and large, I'm more drawn to Google Reader than Bloglines for now, because I'm anal about usability. The upcoming version of Bloglines seems promising though. It touts the use of Flickr's API to display images from Flickr feeds in maximum resolution. They're also including mobile support for the iPhone. I've tried the beta, and it appears that they've fixed some of the usability problems with a much cleaner interface.