For a long time now, I’ve been switching between NewsRack and Reeder on my iPhone.   I like the look and feel of NewsRack, but it’s slow and updating feeds takes an eternity. Reeder is quick and elegant, but at times just feels too simple (read: text heavy) to me.  Sometimes I just crave icons and menus.  So, every month or so I’d move one to my home screen and send the other to the back of the class.

So far, a lot of this is on par with similar apps but there’s a big differentiator here – searching for and adding new feeds from within the app.   Simply click that little + button to bring up the search screen.

You type in a keyword(s) in the search bar and the app returns Google Reader’s search results.  You can subscribe directly from the results page (orange + button) or after clicking on the feed to view the latest posts.  This is feature I’ve wanted for a long time and MobileRSS Pro has done it right.  Countless times I’ve forgotten about a blog or topic I wanted to add to GReader but failed to make a note or remember the name.  Never again!

• Feed name, post title, preview
• Unread icon
• Image icon (for posts containing images)
• Show All, Show New
• Sort by newest first, Sort by oldest first
• Mark all as read
• Feed details (current group folder, create/change folder)

I really like the way posts are displayed.  The app does a great job of optimizing the post for the iPhone’s screen – with the help of Google Mobilizer and ad removal.  I no longer saw “related posts” or sponsored links & images  [Note: should you really feel a need to see these, you can few the unformatted version by clicking the orange arrow in the post title].  There’s also a view full-screen button that lets you have the entire screen to read, along with a transparent menu for moving between newer & older posts.

There’s also a sharing feature that includes some of the more popular options:  Email, Twitter, Facebook, ReadItLater, Instapaper and Delicious.  I’ve seen more sharing options on other apps.  Keep an eye out for this if you need sharing support for other platforms.

There are 3 versions of Mobile RSS:  Pro ($2.99), Standard ($1.99), and Free (ad-supported).  The Standard version doesn’t include search and add feeds, however, the Free version does (albeit ad-supported).  That’s good news if you’d like to test-drive the app before committing any money.

We also have a contest going on until tomorrow (April 19) at 6:00 PM CST with five promo codes to be won — details here.