Google Reader makes its way to the Mac desktop with Gruml

Gruml has been around for a while now, but its first beta was extremely glitchy; too much to make it a very interesting and useful application. However, more recent beta releases have made Gruml a much more stable application. To be specific, an impressive RSS reader that relies on Google Reader for functionality.

Many of you are probably familiar with NetNewsWire—an application I use on both my Mac and iPhone quite often—which has made the switch to syncing with Google Reader back in July. As Gruml advances with new features similar to that of NetNewsWire, it, along with other RSS readers that sync with Google Reader, will have some good competition.

One thing that Gruml is lacking, though, is the AppleScript dictionary, which is quite important in an RSS reader (although that may be implemented in future versions of the app). The keyboard navigation, although quite decent, is also not as good as that within Google Reader’s web interface, which can be navigated entirely with only a keyboard. One cool Gruml feature is the “Send Article to” menu, which uses 12 services, including Delicious, Twitter, Facebok, Ping.fm and Posterous. Other Google Reader features, such as note-taking and starring, are all very well implemented in Gruml, and sync perfectly with the service.

Gruml’s UI has come a long way since the first beta, and the app even allows you to switch between a 2-column or 3-column view. The ability to add feeds is very well done and simplifies the process a lot more than other RSS reader apps. Still, some techinical glitches and bugs remain even in the latest version of Gruml (for example, marking all articles as “read” doesn’t provide any visual feedback), but it is still a very promising Google Reader desktop app for Mac OS X.

As a free download, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t try Gruml.