RSS reader for Windows FeedDemon goes from strength to strength with version 3 as the latest test version I’m now running (3.0.0.10 Beta 1b)clearly indicates.

Until the end of March, I’d been running a release candidate of version 2.8, the new version expected soon. But developer Nick Bradbury has jumped right ahead to version 3.

Two new features in this version are especially appealing:

• Better handling of Twitter feeds: If you’re a Twitter fan, you’ll love how we’ve made FeedDemon a better Twitter feed reader.
• Tagging: FeedDemon’s new tagging features enable you to assign your own keywords to items, making it easy to classify and locate articles you’ve previously read. To assign a tag to an item, simply click the tag icon under the item’s headline.

While I don’t see FeedDemon as a viable desktop tool for daily use with Twitter – the unrivalled desktop app for that is TweetDeck – it’s certainly an invaluable tool for tracking Twitter content via RSS. When you are reviewing such content within FD, you now have tweets as rich content complete with links, rather than simple plain text as before.

Support to add tags to individual feed items is great, adding to the value of this reader as a primary RSS search analysis and management tool.

Other new features in FeedDemon include:

• Really simple sharing: Sharing articles is now much simpler – just click the Share icon to add an item to the RSS feed for your shared clippings. And keep in mind that you can still share any web page by drag-and-dropping a hyperlink or browser tab to your shared clippings.
• Short URL preview: Want to know where a short URL (TinyURL, etc.) will take you? Hover over it to see a balloon tip that shows where it goes.
• Simpler, cleaner user interface: We’ve streamlined FeedDemon’s UI, cured the toolbutton overload of previous versions, and made a number of "tweaks" which improve the overall experience of using FeedDemon.
• New start page: FeedDemon’s redesigned "Subscriptions Home" page now includes popular articles and YouTube videos from your subscribed feeds.
• Even faster and more reliable: FeedDemon has always been fast (after all, its name is a play on the phrase "speed demon"), but now it’s even faster! And thanks to the built-in error reporting, we’ve identified and resolved the most common problems our customers encountered in earlier versions.

(All bullet points from the latest beta release notes.)

One more feature not in this beta but expected by the time the release version is available – integration between FD and Google Reader.

Yes, it’s unrivalled on the Windows desktop. Get FeedDemon. It’s free.