I've been using RSS feeds for about 3 years now. I first had to use them when I ran BlogForIowa. I wanted a faster way to track other blogs in the blogosphere that I had no time to read during the course of a day. I used a service called Feedblitz that also let people subscribe to my blog.
Everyday, Feedblitz would send me detailed posts of all the blogs I followed. I found I couldn't keep up with all the email, so I moved to Google Reader, and then Bloglines when Google Reader couldn't keep up with over 1,000 posts and 200 per blog. Then, I switched back to Google Reader because Bloglines had some display trouble. I didn't really use the reblog feature that Bloglines had - where could republic stuff from other people's blogs to my blog. I think there's something called Tumblr which does the same thing. Not sure, though.
Although it was easy to move the blogs themselves from one reader to the next, it was not easy to move the bookmarked entries. I haven't even tried that.
Throughout this time, RSS feeds have been useful tools to help me follow news I cared about. The best thing for me, however, was the auto-identify rss feed feature that I use in firefox. I love the little organge box. It's my new best friend. I can't wait to see what features are added to all of this in the future. I'm sure there's a record number of blogs that some one reads, but I can't handle more than about 50 posts per day. I skim a lot, but reading all this stuff still takes time. I wish I had more of that.
7 years ago
50 posts per day? That is too many for me. This is my fear of RSS. I just don't want to feel overwhelmed with information. I already feel like I can't keep up with my emails, text messages, voice mail, snail mail, family issues, school, teaching, weddings, holidays, etc. Now subscribing and reading 50 or more posts a day. I think I'm going to take this one with a bit of caution and ease my way into it. I want real time with my family.
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