Functional vs. Personal: What’s your view?
by asi
One thing that really bugs me and I don’t have any solution to is that reading a hundred blogs on any RSS feeder, while very efficient and functional makes the experience rather dull. In other words reading a blog that you like (sorry no links here as there are too many) from the actual blog makes my experience 10 times better. In most cases, it’s not as dull/generic as the feed reader, it’s personal, you can ‘feel’ the bloggers personality, it’s (again, in most cases) far better designed and so forth.
But then again, it is almost impossible to handle big bulk of blogs without an RSS reader….
Anyone else feels bored / uninspired by their RSS feeder and that something is lost in the sea of functionality?
Funny you should say that. I’ve just been thinking the same thing. I definitely benefit from using the reader but I still feel the need to do a lot of reading direct from the blogs themselves. There’s a lot in context, no?
Yep, have the same problem
It’s kind of like having a list of songs on your MP3 VS. a CD with a cover. I find that some blogs can’t be read only in RSS and I have to go directly to experience the blog. How about a new breed of RSS reader?
I know what you mean Asi. I go back and forth. Back and forth. It’s like food. When I’m on the go—a reader is sort of like going through a drive through. But when I want a fine dining experience, I go directly to the blog and read slower.
Actually I find I have the opposite feeling. If the writing is good it means you just concentrate on that and the personality comes through rather than the visual trappings of the blog.
That said, I often click through to see the original post and read it (or to response, like this one).
Hi Asi,
I may have an answer to your problem!
I use netvibes as an rss reader and there is a function letting you the choice between ‘feed view’ and ‘site view’ without leaving the blog/site you are visiting!
You have the best of rss combined to personality of the blog!
(I am actually writing this comment from netvibes!)
How odd, this is the second blog I have read (on my RSS reader!) posting this thought in two days.
Here’s the other
http://diamondgeezer.blogspot.com/2008_01_01_archive.html#8010582323521833785
I feel the same way. I thought there was something wrong with the fact I didn’t like answering the question: What do you have on your RSS? It’s refreshing to find you and others honestly agree. I love blogs for the reason that they validate insecurities and thoughts on a worldwide scale.
I don’t have a solution yet for how to read/when to read the number of blogs I find useful. But it will works itself out in time. We always want there to be an answer readily available and we think: I’m sure someone else has thought of this before so there’s probably an answer. I guess we’re still looking for this one.
cheers you all for the great comments
David – what a great surprise! Thats what I’m doing at the moment back and forth blog/reader
Frogi -that sounds like the perfect solution – i’ll check it out. maybe it’s time to move from bloglines to netvibes
cheers for all the rest!
A.
google’s reader “next” bookmarklet lets you browse from post to post between the actual blogs.
i usually use reader and switch when it’s a post i want to read the comments on.
I completely agree with you, the context always brings something to the content, though sounds pretty unmanageable at the same time when you’re following lots of blogs…
I think someone else mentioned it in the comments, but a friend of mine was showing me Netvibes, an aggregator that looks like it has a lot more cool functionalities than Google Reader and potentially where you could manage to easily go view the blog at its source. I’m going to try it out, we’ll see.
I am with you Asi. I have tried a heap of alternatives, but for managing volumes, feed readers are the best. At the moment I use Flock to scan the headlines and then click through to the site for the full meal. Otherwise it feels too light and just a little devoid of context and personality.
Totally – I feel similar. Interestingly, I have recently come across a couple of handy alternatives that seem worth sharing…
1 Wizz Feed – Firefox rss plugin https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/424
This plug in adds a left hand window on the side of the fiefox browser which constantly updates your rss feeds and when you like on blog post titles automatically loads these in the main browser window.
2- fav.or.it media is an interesting development on the rss feed. Basically enables you to read, comment and publish all within the reader environment…
3- Flock – http://www.flock.com/
the social web browser is something that I’m totally getting into right now. Basically makes the whole internet experience (browsing, socialising, contributing, sharing and participating) more seamless and ‘human’/social. Takes a while to set up and get used to but once your going it’s just plain great…