How many of you use RSS?

jesusphreak

It seems like everyone and their mother (okay, maybe not their mom), is making a huge deal out of RSS these days. Supposedly it is revolutionary. I honestly just don't get what the big deal is.

Anytime I've tried to use an RSS reader, I look at it a bit, and then I figure I'd rather just go to the actual website. The web is all about unique designs and most of all, interaction and community. With RSS, you have no interaction. Its a one-way channel, and there is no way for a user to discuss that content with you. To me that just breaks the spirit of the web. Plus, with tabs in the major browsers now, browsing multiple sites isn't terribly difficult (unless you have a slow connection, but even then, it isn't so bad). Oh well, maybe this will change one day.

How many of you use RSS and enjoy it?

Jazzman

Nope... don't use it... I also rather like to visit the website :)

ADM

I use it but more from a developers point of view.. just to pull data from a site and use it for projects of mine and stuff like that. I never use an RSS feed to actually get updates from the site, I usually have a set number of sites I visit whenever I'm on the net so I don't need to have RSS for that.

gizmo

I use RSS, but not as the main media. I use it to quickly get a little overview about what the article is talking about. If I found it interesting, I'll read the article on the web site. It's also a way to keep some kind of bookmarks (I use it in Opera). In fact, I don't like when the full article is included in the rss, but i can understand that it could be good for some people with some handicap.

3stripe

The only place I use it is on my Google IG homepage... good for quick links to BBC News, my Gmail, Flickr, and a few bookmark feeds... also had a Basecamp feed on there as well until they added a password to it. I did try RSS readers but don't see the point really as you have to click through into your broswer to see the text in context. Like you've all said, it's much faster to have 10 browser tabs open at once, use your shortcuts to flick between them and just scan read for the good stuff.

lech

Only when really really really bored do I fire up sage and rifle through the old RSS feeds. I don't use it as my primary means of getting content however. While RSS is still ripe, it's not exactly all that it's cracked up to be. Not knocking it by the way, but it's just not my thing for the main system here. I can see it's usefulness on the road though under a PocketPC or PDA device where WiFi is available though.

Aaron Powell

I use my RSS reader all the time. I read probably fifty or so political and tech blogs and visiting each site individually would take far too long. It helps that the feedreader I use (NewsFire for OS X) has a wonderful interface that allows me to just keep pounding the spacebar to jump from item to item and scroll through longer items. So I can sit with my morning coffee in one hand and read all my news with the other. I don't think there's any way I could stay on top of as many things if I had to read the sites the old fashioned way.

giginger

I have an RSS reader at work which gives me the headlines of about 15 sites. Takes me straight to articles. I just find it an easier way of checking sites rather than going to the site itself Laziness.

stuart

I use RSS every 15 minutes. I have Newsfire on my mac, and feed subscriptions to something like 700 sites. RSS is great, it means I get to read content without visiting some awful looking/slow loading/painfullyfull of advertising sites. Also, I don't spend hours checking on my favourite sites now, they come and tell me when something new is added.

Felipe

I used FeedReader for a while but was bored by two things: - switch between FeedReader and Firefox for many blogs, so "I'd rather just go to the actual website" too and use FeedReader as an alert system - I try to use the keyboard as much as possible and it lost focus constantly while Tab-ing between the 3 panes: grrrr! (said differently: "an unhappy user experience") Today I'm giving a try to http://www.netvibes.com, seems practical for now (but no keyboard at all here, well as long as I don't have to switch from one to other: should go for it) I will see in a few weeks if I still use it or I find a better Reader in the meanwhile

jesusphreak

Netvibes-type sites are really smart for the creators....they can roll in the dough because they can place ads that everyone is gonna see.

matt

I use RSS for checking on my favourite sites, some of which I will then visit in more detail. Just makes up for lack of time really, and keeps everything tidy in one place.

GrayB0X

I kind of use RSS only for news style sites, like Wired.com or yahoos news but other then that its not really something I find useful. Its good for quickly reading updated news event are newer version of software similar to a change log other then that like for forum use I would rather just visit and look around.

chimaira

I use RSS purely for headlines, like most of you guys said, and then visit the site if the article seems interesting enough... I find it a lot easier than searching sites several times a day, and a lot less time consuming too. I have also used Vanilla feeds to check for the latest posts on my bands forum, but then I realised that Vanilla is way to awesome for me not to visit it every hour anyway.

outbreak

i use feeds at work all the time, theyre so easy and convenient without having to worry about whats worksafe or not.

moe

i love my rawdog.
simply puts all feeds on a plain ol' html page and keeps it updated.

and for the technically inclined here's a nice article about why RSS sucks, why it should be done via NNTP and why NNTP sucks and why it shouldn't be done via NNTP.

shad0w913

I do!

Ben

I do, I use Google Reader to organise them all.

Jan

I to use RSS for mainly news headlines in Firefox. It's a really convenient way of keeping up-to-date with what's happening I think.

alexis

Hi, I use FeedDemon and am subscribed to a huge list of sites, whenever I have the time I take a look at some posts and if I see something interesting I just open the site. Feeds are really time savers.

Krak

I dont. I dont like them. I like to visit the site, see the graphics, get the feel for it. RSS is against all creativity. I can spend days on a new theme for my blog, just to have it go to waste because everyone is reading my posts from a stupid tasteless RSS feed.