Google Reader Gaining Slowly, Bloglines Remains #1

By Nathan Weinberg


Hitwise has released a graph tracking major web-based RSS readers (Bloglines, Google Reader, Rojo, Newsgator and Netvibes) over the last year, and their stats show that Google Reader leapt out of a malaise after the release of the new version, and while it has a ways to go before catching Bloglines, it is finally a contender.

On January 6 of this year, Reader had .00011 of all U.S. internet visits, behind Newsgator (.00014), Rojo (.00042) and Bloglines (.00140), but had been as high as .00030 in recent weeks. Reader used to hug the bottom of the chart, having an almost imperceptible share of the market, and now stands at about 1/10 of the venerable Bloglines (owned by competing search engine, I’d love to see the chart in another month, see if the gains continue.

January 19, 2007 by Nathan Weinberg in:

8 Responses to “Google Reader Gaining Slowly, Bloglines Remains #1”

  1. Google Readers Gains on Bloglines Says:

    […] According to Inside Google, the free web-based feed reader Bloglines has an Internet Explorer style lead on the web-based feeds competition, with Rojo in a very distant second place.  The encouraging news is the up and coming web-based feed reader choice of mine, Google Reader, has made tremendous strides towards the competition. […]

  2. Bloglines is Number One « Kamla Bhatt Says:

    […] Bloglines is Number One Bloglines is the number blog reader according to this post quoting a recent Hitwise report. Google Reader is second. And TechCrunch wonders how big is Google Reader? […]

  3. lene Says:

    thats interesting

  4. Tim Says:

    I have no clue why I would rely on statistics that count the number of “hits” when it comes to web-based feed reader popularity. How are we to know that the AJAX is accounted for properly? How do we know they’re not overcompensating for them using AJAX?

    I think it’d at least be MORE accurate if they’d count the number of blogs that are accessed from these services’ IP addresses, or user agent. Then again, there are probably a lot of reasons that’s not accurate enough either.

  5. Nathan Weinberg Says:

    They may be called Hitwise, but the text below the chart says it is based on visitors, not hits, so don’t worry about that. Bloglines has a pretty bid lead, which it achieved by being a leader and innovator in the space when it was still young.

  6. Tim Says:

    The same type of argument can show why counting the visitors can be very inaccurate as well.

    I still feel this can only be counted properly by aggregating the data of a lot of small blogs. I think Blogger might be able to show us much better statistics (hmm… it might have a Google bias, though).

  7. Tim Says:

    I can’t believe this! This is the second comment in a row I’ve lost! AAAUUUGH.

  8. Nathan Weinberg Says:

    I don’t know. If you think about it, as RSS becomes more mainstream, you are going to see a smaller percentage of guys like me, who read hundreds of feeds, and a larger percentage of people who read mainstream feeds, like their local newspaper or mega-blogs. Counting small blogs could be a big mistake; counting huge blogs and wide-appeal blogs is more likely to give more accurate numbers.

    Why do you keep losing comments? Is it the CoComment?

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