Browsing the Web Using an RSS Reader
Several months ago, I tried (for the second or third time) to switch over to browsing the web using an RSS reader. Speciically, I’m using NetNewsWire by NewsGator.
Sadly, though I spend most of my time online through the nature of my work… I’ve found myself with less and less time to actually surf or browse online. I’m not following a ton of sites, and I’ve got a handful of subscriptions. And yet, if I go a day without checking… the numbers seem to just grow and grow. Looking at the number of “unread” items is akin to looking at a huge Inbox of email that hasn’t been read yet. Sometimes, it makes me a little anxious.
I think there are a couple things going on here. First of all, in terms of time and attention, I’m pretty much doing this to myself. There’s nothing to say I have to read all these items. If something’s unread – so be it. But I think there’s something in the way an RSS reader is structured that subtly implies or requires this kind of compulsive “read everything” mentality.
It’s unhealthy, and totally of my own doing. It’s like saying Wow, I’m really behind on my relaxing. I need to block out some time and get caught up on all that relaxing I didn’t do.
Additionally, a part of me misses actually visiting a site and browsing it straight up, through a browser. Sure, I still read indvidual articles… but there’s a certain feel, the look and texture of a site, that seems to be missing.
I have a group of bookmarks in Safari (Boingboing, Twelvestone, MetaFilter, LifeHacker, Gapers Block, Coudal Partners) that I have set up to all open in tabs. Prior to my switch to using an RSS reader, I’d hit a button and all those sites would refresh on my screen.
A few months back, it was a physical part of my workflow. In the pauses and spaces between tasks, I’d hit my group bookmark button… it was as natural as exhaling.
Looking back, I can’t remember the last time I did that. Which is both good and bad. I feel like I’m browsing the web in a more efficient manner, but some part of me still feels odd about the approach. I still sort of miss the feel of browsing a website, if that makes any sense.
In having moved to an RSS reader, the two main things that seem to stick with me are: the compulsion to check and “read” all items, regardless of the backlog… and the feeling that RSS-based browsing is somehow a bit more clinical in nature. Maybe I’m still in that adjustment phase, but I’m finding myself using an RSS reader… but not liking it all that much still.
I’m curious – do most of you use an RSS reader? Anyone have the same kind of feeling towards RSS? I’m interested to hear what other people use (Google, Bloglines, Netvibes, etc), and whether your web/browsing experience has improved as a result.
I use Google Reader. I like it, thats about it. I love the concept of RSS and I still goto many of the sites I subscribe to. I think the only downfall is the disconnection. You can not comment inside an RSS reader, or read the comments unless the provider has a feed for their comments, and then you are having 2 different feeds :(
TJ Mapes (February 10, 2009 at 8:47 am)for the most part, i dont read anything that’s not in my reader. then again, i worked at feedburner! dont feel preasured by unread counts. i have tons of unread. sometimes i get to it sometimes i dont. there are feeds i read every day and never get a count and ones that are in the hundreds that i only read when im bored, have tons of time, am on a boring conference call, etc. also, i use google reader. then again, i worked at google! at least you didnt say bloglines :)
rachelle (February 10, 2009 at 10:37 am)I LOVE Google Reader… I can get compulsive too, I know that little voice. Sometimes it feels liberating to just hit the Mark All as Read button. But I find that I miss far less of what I enjoy, like your blog. I seldom go to websites anymore.
Alex (February 10, 2009 at 3:42 pm)i use netnewswire, syncing between my desktop at home, my phone, and my computer here. i refresh three times a day: once before i leave the house, to fill up my phone’s instapaper; once at lunch; and once right before i leave, to fill instapaper again. if i’m bored and not-yet-tired and it’s butt-late, i’ll refresh it a fourth time and blow through whatever leftover detritus.my iphone’s feeds are a small subset of my total feeds. i keep my feeds to a bare minimum (at present, only 30 or so feeds, only 10 of which are frequently active) because my friends have a habit of constantly pasting stuff to me across the day that i find interesting, especially into a chat room which i use during the day, which i then share and swap with others, both in and out of the room, both in and out of work. most of my daily reading habit is determined by other people, rather than culled myself – notably, almost none of the best things i find during a day were actually found by me, and thankfully, my friends have had a pretty damn good track record.so most of my information intake during the day is a very social thing, yet (despite rumors to the contrary) i am very, very careful to blow my cognitive information load. the chat room, as well as my aim buddy list (which is about 1/3 of the size at work than it is at home) is a function of that. i pick who gets in, and hence who gets to frequently send me links. people send me things about typography and interface design because they know that those are my interests, and that i’ll have strong opinions about them. conversely i’ll send everyone animated gifs of cats with presents coming out of their mouths. it’s a nice mutual system.
nickd (February 10, 2009 at 4:18 pm)I’m also a NetNewsWire guy, mainly because I think they kill it on the UI front and the ability to sync is perfect for bouncing between home and work. I use it primarily as a quick filter for activity on my favorite sites: the two-paned approach is perfect for determining whether an article or post is something I went to spend a little more time reading. My approach is thus:1. I use the traditional three-pane view, with feeds on the left, titles in the top right, and post content in the bottom pane.2. When I run a refresh, I select the “Latest News” aggregate that collects the latest posts from all feeds (I have them sorted by date posted so that I get the oldest material to the newest to catch up on whatever I’ve missed) and then do the rest of my navigation using arrow keys.3. I bump down the list starting from the top, and usually I know whether a post is something I want to read or something I want to skip by reading the title and the first couple sentences (enough to get context).4. Here’s the key: if it IS something I think I might want to explore a little more, I hit the right arrow key, which automatically pops the post or article up into its own browser window in your default browser. The best part is that it pops UNDER the NetNewsWire application, so you can keep running down the list while the interesting post waits idly for you to finish.5. When you’re done with the list (usually goes pretty quickly), you have a fun collection of posts waiting for you to jump over to, some of which turn into little surprises because you’ve already forgotten what you popped up in the interim.It should also be noted that I’m a guy who likes browsing in separate windows rather than tabs, so.. that could be a problem for tab-happy peeps. Anyway, the right arrow trick is a real treat for NetNewsWire and thin-slicing your way through a big list of feeds. I’ve also found that if I don’t have time to read something right then and there, I can flag it in NetNewsWire (which creates a separate “flagged items” depository on the left nav) and revisit that smaller, curated list when I’m good and ready.
Chris (February 10, 2009 at 10:41 pm)This is a very timely entry for me. I’d recently resolved to get my tangled nest of feeds in order, once and for all, by setting up Google Reader. Up until this week I just had one folder of bookmarks in Safari for daily reading, another four or five folders for occasional reading by theme, and then maybe ten other blogs (like yours) on my Google homepage. It was a really convoluted way to consume around 100 blogs/websites… but I think I was trying to avoid the scenario you described above of read/unread entries and the compulsion to clear them all.Back in the USENET heyday I got into trouble with this setup and ended up wasting waaaaaay more time clicking on things I didn’t really care about, precisely to clear the endless seas of unread flags. It almost became a subconscious game. I wonder what this is about, maybe a blue trait that some of us share? I never did the color training you guys did, but this seems like it might be blue.All that said, I tried Google Reader for half a day and it drove me crazy. I found it very clunky to navigate, personally. So I joined the dark side and set up NetNewsWire. I love it but it’s dangerous. I can certainly feel a certain compulsiveness rising to the surface again. Now what to do with what’s left of my Google homepage!I suppose all this focus on feeds, bookmarks, and such seems geeked-out on the surface… but we all spend so much time in this realm every day. By switching my system I feel like I just sealed off all the doors in my house and installed a new one in the kitchen. Jarring! I also believe there’s such a thing as too much information… so I enter a bit warily into this world of more on-demand reading than I could ever reasonably digest. We’ll see!
Allison (February 11, 2009 at 9:30 am)To Allison’s point, there’s a certain amount of information overload that has to be managed. I’ve found that there are about 30 or so feeds that I like to get routinely because it’s stuff I don’t want to miss (mostly political feeds, some game and mp3 blogs, etc.) and then there are those blogs/sites that don’t make it into my NetNewsWire feeds because they just post too damn often and I’d rather just do a quick browse when I have some time to spend (dailyKos and BoingBoing, for example). I think the balance is finding the feeds you can’t get enough of and then leaving the rest for more leisurely bookmarked browsing.
chris (February 11, 2009 at 11:00 am)Haven’t had a chance to reply until now… but thanks for all the thoughts and comments, everyone!While I don’t have a ton of feeds at the moment, I think moderation is key – at least for me. Rather than viewing a reader as a means to sift through a greater amount of content than I could via traditional browsing… it seems like the best approach may be to limit my subscriptions to the sites that I really want to keep tabs on.Chris – opening links with the right-arrow is HUGE. I think that little tweak will have a pretty dramatic effect on my browsing process. Also – I had been syncing up to my Mobile Me account, and NetNewsWire would drive me batty with how often it would run into problems syncing. I switched it over to use NewsGator for syncing and it’s a world of difference.It’s a bit weird to me, complaining and lamenting about RSS readers and keeping up with feeds. I feel like I’m complaining about my remote control when I talk about this. But it’s neat to hear from other folks, and to learn a bit about how you all surf, day to day.
avoision (February 11, 2009 at 10:42 pm)