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VIDEO: Do We Even Need RSS News Readers Anymore?

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This week, Google shut down its RSS feed reader aptly named Google Reader. And even though its termination wasn't sudden, the loss of Google Reader left a lot of people searching for new ways to get their news. In this brief — yet lively — video discussion, our experts ponder the question: Do we even need RSS news readers anymore?

What about you, readers? How do you get your news? Did the shuttering of Google Reader change your news habits at all? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

Front page photo credit: TomDouglas.com

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5 comments
ARGuck
I agree with @mccalld. If you're overwhelmed by your own feed than you're the problem not RSS. Do I sometimes overwhelm myself with my RSS reading? Oh heck yeah, but at least it's all organized and it's up to me to decided to just mark all as read or start the speed skimming. That's actually, where my problems with flipboard lie. I don't get a choice of what I see, it's always seemed kind of random. So that just doesn't work for me. And twitter as a news feed as a joke in my opinion. I also use my RSS as an information archiver as well and star things I might need later as well as send certian things to Pocket. Actually I haven't used Google Reader directly for years but I use it though the wonderful Reeder Apps. Honestly I'm ok with Google Reader dying as long as the developer gets those apps going ASAP. I'm currently using Feedly and though they did a good job it's just not quick enough for my speed skimming. And that is my 2ยข.
July 3, 2013
mccalld
In response to the video's take on RSS, if you're getting too many feeds to digest regularly, or don't read the feeds regularly, you're doing it wrong. You can typically find topical sub-RSS feeds from major content generators. Just take the one(s) relevant to you. If you've flooded your news reader, that is your own fault. If you try to read everything, that is your own fault. If you subscribe to streams bloated with junk content, that is your own fault.

You aren't supposed to read them all. The point is that you can skim everything so quickly and find the items that DO interest you much more easily and quickly. It is a sorting mechanism.

I have yet to find a better system than a well managed RSS reader for gathering, sorting, and filtering information that is timely and relevant to my interests.
July 3, 2013
havoc3d
I was really irked when Google decided to harpoon Reader. I never much liked RSS until their format, as most readers seemed to treat RSS like emails, and I like it for things exactly like DealNews that I don't necessarily want to click and open every item, I just want to scroll through and pick out a few that interest me.

I switched over to NewsBar for OS X. I'd still honestly prefer Reader, but NewsBar is a decent substitute.
July 3, 2013
mccalld
99% of my web browsing starts from an RSS reader. I used Google Reader for years. I switched to Feedly last month.

Every dealnews post I see is in an RSS reader. With things like news sites and blogs, I can do all my reading directly from the RSS reader.

And it is all listed neatly in one list, showing how many unread articles I have at each place (and I have them categorized by type... I can also see the aggregate unread count for each category). I see a headline and a synopsis of everything from everywhere. I can quickly skim hundreds of items and grab the few that are relevant to me.

I don't understand why more people don't use RSS readers. Would you rather have to go to 30 different news stands and have to get 30 different articles to read the content of one magazine... or get one magazine mailed to your house? It's basically the same concept.

I can probably see 10x-30x the content a non-RSS browser would see... and find more of the practical content.
July 3, 2013
jrmalicki
I am similar to Jeff. I have been using RSS feeds for 10 years now and was sad to see Google Reader go, however Feedly has done an excellent job picking up the slack. I read the Dealnews Most Popular Deals pretty religiously via RSS! I probably only frequent about 5 of my 100 feeds on a daily basis. Days where I have more time I will go through a few of my favorites and skim through the articles that seem interesting. RSS make it quick to determine the articles that interest you and the ones that don't, Engadget and Lifehacker for example.
July 3, 2013