NewsGator Inbox - Review

Ratings

• Ease of Use: 3

• User Interface: 4

• Performs as Described: 2

• Overall: 3

Overall I found NewsGator Inbox to be a tool that performed as expected for the most part and made it very easy for me to review and manage my posts in an environment where it is difficult to download full-up programs and where too much internet usage can draw unwanted attention, specifically at work. There were a few things that did not work as I expected but I liked the integration with Microsoft Outlook and the ability to customize my view to match my preferences pretty closely. Check out the user guides that I have posted over the past few months for more information. Here is a brief list of some of the Pros and Cons for NewsGator Inbox:

Pros
1. NewsGator Inbox is an add-on or plug-in and not a full up desktop program
2. It looks and feels just like Outlook adding to ease of use. It even uses some of the same tools, such as .pst files in order to support the configuration of the folders.
3. Since Outlook has the ability to show web content without launching a web browser, there is added capability and increased usability without launching additional programs.
4. Although the Help function is limited, there is additional help available through the NewsGator Forums. Although going to them automatically launches your default browser rather then utilizing the web tools within Outlook, there is a wealth of knowledge in the forums that is search-able and you can ask question and receive answers from the NewsGator team and other users.
5. Post to Blog tool allows you to post to links, quotes or new compositions to your blog, in both draft or published form, from within NewsGator Inbox. It is limited though (see con 7 below).
6. The NewsPage feature is fully customizable and provides you with a headline view, much like a newspaper, that you can use to peruse your feeds while determining which posts you would like to read further.
7. You can use NewsGator Inbox to create your own RSS feed where you become the editor, selecting stories and post that you want to share with your friends. Supports multiple RSS feeds so you can create more then one and is based on the folder setup, so for each folder that you enable the RSS Feed capability it will automatically distribute the feed to your friends.
8. You can setup the wait time after Outlook start-up before the update tool will run, helping to speedup start times.
9. There is a tool to eliminate duplicate clippings (I wish that it would eliminate duplicates throughout the NewsGator Inbox, and furthermore would eliminate duplicates that are sited from the same source, such as AP Articles that are quoted by both MSNBC and CNN for example). Overall very helpful for reducing duplication and removing clutter.
10. The Subscription Management tool scrubs the unread items based on your defined criteria to reduce the overwhelming number of RSS Feed posts distributed every day!
11. Cleanup wizard is very good at eliminating old posts that you have not marked as keepers, through archiving or deletion. This reduces the amount of space that they take up and keeps your inbox clean. It even reminds you to run it.
12. Smart Feeds, feed discovery and recommended feeds can help you find feeds and integrate them into NewsGator inbox fast and easily through url and keyword searches. However is not consistent with the functionality of the Smart Feeds found in the NewGator Online version
13. Test-Drive and Auto-Deletion give you an opportunity to try new feeds for a while without having to delete them later if you do not like them. Also if a feed stops providing posts regularly or stops all together the feed can be deleted automatically without intervention from you which keeps your Inbox nice and tidy.

Cons
1. Running options in NewsGator Inbox will consume all of the resources for Outlook and will effectively lock you out of Outlook until it completes the action.
2. Running the update function consumes a significant amount of memory and will affect the usability of other programs that you have running
3. NewGator Inbox will increase the Outlook start-up time because it is one more thing that Outlook has to open before opening.
4. Since NewsGator Inbox is linked to another program, Microsoft Outlook, it has a lagging update schedule and is dependent upon Outlook updates which can have a negative affect on the performance of the add-on.
5. Some aspects of the tool can conflict with anti-virus software, such as links within messages.
6. Help is offered, but it is very high level and usually only provides basic descriptions
7. Post to blog only supports a few of the most popular online blog services. I was only able to get it to work with Wordpress and LiveJournal. Also it will not create new categories if you do not already have them created within your Blog.
8. Synchronization tool uses extra resources that will slow overall computer operation
9. Reports other then “My Attention Report” were not functional and the analysis tools do not synchronize with any of the other NewsGator tools so you do not get an overall view if you utilize other tools or other computers.
10. As with the reports, some of the tools were not functional
11. Synchronization was not always working properly, for instance folders deleted in another NewsGator tool (like online or FeedDemon) do not always update in NewsGator Inbox as deleted.