I've found that without an RSS reader I don't get around to checking out my friend's pages, so I need to get myself a reader and am now going to make a concerted effort to find one that fits my needs. Throughout this process I'll keep you updated with my impressions of the various clients I try out. Note that I may end up finding a great client and/or get bored before I can try out every client out there, so don't be disappointed if I peter out.

So, what are my criteria?

Must Have:

• Offline Reading - I tend to live most of my life on my laptop and if I can't take care of some of the reading while on an airplane or sitting in a waiting room it won't work for me.
• Comments API - The original post is not all of the interesting content related to a post, I need to be able to read the comments on my blog and the blogs of my friends without having to navigate to the blog and dig down to the comments page.
• Windows application - I use Windows, if it runs on another platform it obviously won't work for me (and please don't start any religious Mac vs. Windows vs. Linux discussions with me, I can't be bothered).

Like to Have:

• Saved Searches - When part of my feed base relates to work it's great to have a "feed" which is a view of all posts which contain a particular keyword (e.g. Hotmail).
• Outlook Hotkeys - I use keyboard shortcuts in Outlook to speed up reading of messages. If my RSS reader were to use the same keys I'd be able to quickly mark things read, delete and forward posts without having to learn a new set of keys (which would potentially get confused with other applications).

I've started an initial list of readers with my main requirements: http://www.little.org/tips/rssreaders.htm. If you have an app you really like, please let me know.