Bloglines v. Google Reader

I’ve been using Google Reader for a few years now, so there’s a chance I’m just set in my ways and resistant to change. Still, after some experimentation with Bloglines, I think I prefer Google’s tool as my RSS aggregator. There are a few reasons for this.

The first is the presentation of feed items. In Bloglines, when I click on a blog’s title, it displays all available items in the feed, and marks them all as read. In Google Reader, clicking on a feed name displays a list of posts by title, but these are all keep “unread” until the individual post is selected (or until I click the “Mark All as Read” button). I prefer this system because it lets me keep better track of what I have an haven’t seen. If I glance at a list of posts, and want to read one and save another for later, that is an option. I shouldn’t have to read everything from a particular feed all at once just because it was all available at once.

Another reason I prefer Reader is that it integrates with my contacts from gmail. If I like a post, I can click the “Like” or “Share” button, and my contacts who also use Reader will see the item. I do not see a similar option for Bloglines (and if it does have a similar sharing feature, I have no built-in network there). The ability to share interesting and funny content with friends is one of my favorite aspects of social networking, and its lack on Bloglines bothers me.

On the whole, Bloglines looks like an interesting system but I don't think I'll be switching.

Podcasts: Audio That's When I Want It, Where I Want It, and What I Want to Hear

As I write this, I’m listening to NPR’s “Wait Wait... Don’t Tell Me!” which aired over the weekend. Before that, I listened to Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4. Earlier in the day was a show called “Movies You Should See,” where I listened to a group of friends in Leeds, U.K. talk about the Japanese film Zatoichi - and MYSS is a program that is only available on the Internet.

I think podcasts are a brilliant use of RSS technology. Though not 100% technically accurate, the description “Tivo for radio” fits the way I approach my podcast feeds in iTunes. Whether I’m free and near a radio to catch NPR programs I like is very hit or miss, and for many specialized topics there simply no radio shows in my broadcast area. Podcasting lets me work through programs in my own time (right now I’ve got about 60 Unplayed items, down for 100 a couple months ago). Some shows are ported from radio, others are podcast only programs (such as GeekNights or Movies You Should See), and many are short fiction feeds - an online audio adaptation of fiction digests.

This flexibility of podcasting is why I love it. Unlike traditional broadcast mediums, the content I have access to is not limited by a bureaucrat at a network office. With podcasts, the distribution line is simple - a content creator creates a podcast, and if I’m interested in it I subscribe. I’m no longer limited by when something is on the air, or what channels I have access to.

It’s been said that the Internet represents the democratization of media. This is extraordinarily true for podcasts, and why they’re worth checking out.

Why I Love RSS

Over the past few years, RSS feeds have drastically changed the way I interact with the Internet. It used to be that I had to keep bloated folders of bookmarks, and visit each page on a regular basis to see if it had been updated. This led to multiple “favorites” folders, one of which had upwards of 20 comics sites (each with a note on the update pattern), another with several news sites (that had to be visited multiple times each day to avoid missing updates before they were bumped off the main page), and others with blogs or media sites (that might update multiple times per day, or not at all for weeks).

Since I began taking advantage of RSS feeds (in 2006, I think, but I didn’t move over to Google Reader until 2007) my Internet browsing has been greatly simplified. Now I just need to load one web page (or piece of software), and content from dozens of sources is available right there. I don’t have to worry about having missed anything; if I go on vacation or stay offline for a few days, all the new posts are there waiting for me, even if they might have been bumped from the front page of the site they appeared on. And as RSS Readers introduce more integration into social networking sites, it’s easier and easier to share content with friends.

RSS wasn't around when I started using the Internet in the '90s. Now, I can't imagine the Web without it.