Reading RSS feeds is primarily about 1 thing: Navigation. Lets see how Alertle differs from Google Reader in that.
1) INTERFACE
Google Reader:
Google Reader has a 2-panel left to right interface. You click on a feed on the left side and you see its content on the right. Great for a few feeds, but if the number of feeds increases, then you have to scroll down.
You can see the items either all open (expanded view) or all closed (list view).
Alertle:
Alertle has a 3-panel triangular interface. You click on a feed at the top, and you see its items on the left side, and then you can click on an item to read it in full on the right side.
On a standard 1024×768 resolution, you can see upto 64 feeds at any given time, with big desktop-like icons. In higher resolutions, you can see upto 100 feeds and 24 items.
2) KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
Google Reader:
j next item
n item scan down
k previous item
m mark as read/unread
t tag item
p item scan up
shift-n next subscription
v view original
o expand/collapse item
s star item
(Source)
Alertle:
To navigate between items (headlines), you simply use the arrow keys. Up arrow for previous headline; Down arrow for next headline; Left arrow for previous page of headlines; Right arrow for next page of headlines. Fairly intuitive.
While reading an article, you can use PageUp to move up by a line, and PageDown to move down by a line. Also, you can use w, a, s, d to move up, left, down, right between the feed icons, respectively.
3) Alertle launched with a unique feature called AUTOPLAY which lets you see a slideshow of the headlines. Its like the clicks on the headlines are made automagically for you. You can choose the speed of the Autoplay using a nifty slider, which can vary between 2 seconds to 2 mts. There is a lot of content to read and Autoplay saves you all that clicking or key pressing. Kinda like watching TV.
Alertle and Google Reader are comparable to various extents in the following aspects:
- OPML import (By the way, you can move from Google Reader to Alertle within a few minutes using OPML).
- Sharing.
- Finding / adding feeds.
- Rich interface built using AJAX concepts.
- Pre-subscribed feeds (Ok, Alertle just adds about a 1000 more of them than Google Reader!).
- A passionate team of geeks building and supporting the product !
Both are great products with different approaches to reading RSS feeds. We loved GMail, Google Maps, Google Search, and most things “Google”, but Google Reader didn’t quite cut it for us. And we thought that there had to be a better way, so we built Alertle.
Now Google Reader has offline access, which Alertle doesn’t. So if you are on a plane, I do recommend it. But on the ground with internet access, I think Alertle, with its interface, keyboard shortcuts and autoplay simply provides a more convenient and efficient way of reading that content - whether you are a novice or a power RSS user. But don’t take my word for it, try out yourself !
Google Reader: www.google.com/reader | Alertle: www.alertle.com
- Varun
We are looking to make Alertle even more simpler, smoother and easier to use and have some major improvements planned for it, which we have nicknamed the “Mango” release. Alertle’s initial version got widely regarded as doing a pretty good job at making RSS quite easy to use, but we thought we could make it even better after listening to feedback from various users and bloggers. With “Mango”, we are looking to take Alertle to the next level ! Its new, fresh and you will be pleasantly surprised with the sweetness…kinda like eating a mango 
