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RSS Is Dying, and You Should Be Very Worried

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Re: RSS Is Dying, and You Should Be Very Worried

#171

Post by andreyf »

StavrosK wrote: post #105
tmgrhm wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing annoying me about this (sensationalist) article is just that… nobody wants to use their web browser for RSS: they want to browse with it. It also cites the lack of a reader in Chrome as a sign of RSS' impending doom, while ignoring the fact Google also run a (really good) RSS service for free called Google Reader, which is much more intuitively named than RSS and whose name is easier to understand than the…

For me, the best solution is Opera's. It gives you a sort of summary of the feed when you click on it, and asks you where you want to add it (Opera RSS reader, Google Reader, etc). I click Google Reader and it's added automatically.

That sounds like a good implementation. I imagine the Chrome team would agree, and suggest users install the extension which does just that, if they like it: https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/nlbjncdgjeocebhn...

Actually, just about everything he mentions could be done using a Chrome extension (modifying the new tab page, for example).

Re: RSS Is Dying, and You Should Be Very Worried

#172

Post by [deleted] »

angrycoder wrote: post #34

I have used RSS for years now. I check google reader about as often as I check hacker news. I start my morning off with a cup of coffee while I read my feeds using Reeder on the iphone or ipad. Not once have I used any of the RSS features of a browser. I really don't see the point. I guess google doesn't either.

[deleted]

Re: RSS Is Dying, and You Should Be Very Worried

#173

Post by shashank261 »

angrycoder wrote: post #34

I have used RSS for years now. I check google reader about as often as I check hacker news. I start my morning off with a cup of coffee while I read my feeds using Reeder on the iphone or ipad. Not once have I used any of the RSS features of a browser. I really don't see the point. I guess google doesn't either.

I guess the reasons for RSS being killed are 1. Search engines do not want it. 2. Advertisers do not want it. 3. Its only use by people who are tech savvy.

Re: RSS Is Dying, and You Should Be Very Worried

#174

Post by corin_ »

xenomachina wrote: post #166
corin_ wrote: post #20

I can't imagine that browser button pursuading anyone who doesn't already understand and appreciate RSS to start using it. Anyone tech-savvy enough to see it, and start googling to find out how to use it properly has certainly already heard of RSS. And on the other side, anyone who does use RSS, and anyone in the future who learns to use it, won't be put off using it by the loss of that button. The worse statement in…

The worst statement in your comment (other than your use of "worse" in place of "worst") is: anyone who does use RSS, and anyone in the future who learns to use it, won't be put off using it by the loss of that button What about those who use RSS and use that button (like myself)? Won't they be "put off" by the loss of the button? I think you miss the author's main point which is that the usage of the button is low n…

Hitting me where it hurts, a spelling mistake, I guess I should start proof-reading my HN comments.

  What about those who use RSS and use that button (like myself)? Won't they be "put off" by the loss of the button?
If you stop using RSS because the button is no longer there, you clearly didn't actually care about RSS in the first place.

Re: RSS Is Dying, and You Should Be Very Worried

#175

Post by bzbarsky »

k33n wrote: post #57

> Mozilla outright refuse to listen (33 bloody votes!) Wow, 33 votes. They're really ignoring the masses on that one.

For a bug in Mozilla's Bugzilla installation, that's high.

Of course all the high-vote bugs are special-interest-advocacy stuff like "bring back MNG support" and "bring back gopher support" and "bring back the RSS button"... So high vote count is actually a reliable indicator that the bug should be wontfixed, more often than not.

Re: RSS Is Dying, and You Should Be Very Worried

#176

Post by derefr »

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #124
patio11 wrote: post #103

RSS saves me from having to load up 100 different sites several times a day just to check what’s ‘new’. Everything wrong with RSS in a nutshell: this is a problem real people don't have.

Ha! Summed up exactly what I was thinking. Difficulty reading "100 sites several times a day" isn't a technology problem; it's a focus problem.

I am subscribed to around 400 niche blogs, for various topics (game design, linguistics, sci-fi writing, etc.)—but most of them update very rarely (once every few months.) This means that, on average, I'll see 13 new articles on a given day—but I would have had to check all 400 sites to find those 13. The alternative is to only check them once at the same average rate they update at—but that means that I'll get a big wodge of material, go through it all the first time I have a few hours free, and then get nothing for months.

Re: RSS Is Dying, and You Should Be Very Worried

#177

Post by dkarl »

corin_ wrote: post #20

I can't imagine that browser button pursuading anyone who doesn't already understand and appreciate RSS to start using it. Anyone tech-savvy enough to see it, and start googling to find out how to use it properly has certainly already heard of RSS. And on the other side, anyone who does use RSS, and anyone in the future who learns to use it, won't be put off using it by the loss of that button. The worse statement in…

Your assumption is only true if the user experience stays the same. Some things (like web mail) take off even when the user experience sucks, but other things that people actually want can be held back by poor user experience. For an example that has spanned practically the entire history of the internet, consider online gaming. The first internet gamers (MUDers? my history is weak) were a small population of hardcore geeks, but as the user experiences got better, the number of people playing rose in a kind of slow-motion explosion. When each breakthrough game appeared, it attracted a new crowd of players who until then had not found online game slick and engaging enough.

In 1985, 1990, 1995, or 2000 you would not have extrapolated the current percentage of online users playing social games into the future, because it was obvious the experience was going to get better. It was easy to imagine better graphics, sound, responsiveness, and social interaction, and everyone assumed the better experience would attract a broader range of users.

With RSS it's not so easy to imagine how the user experience will improve. We're suffering a failure of imagination. We have the use case: Checking for recent updates on a web site is something people do all the time. They even do it on web sites they're visiting for the first time, and it can be really frustrating depending on the organization of the web site. We have the technology to serve this use case: RSS.

So the users want the information and the browser can get it. We can't yet imagine an effective way to present the information to the users, but proof by failure of imagination is no proof at all. Personally, I think it's likely that someone will find a graceful way to present RSS information to the user, and RSS will disappear from our sight and from our vocabularies into a heretofore-unenvisaged UI element.

Re: RSS Is Dying, and You Should Be Very Worried

#178

Post by axod »

dlsspy wrote: post #157
axod wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is TiVo still big in the US? (It doesn't exist in the UK). We have various hard disk based recorders, and sky plus etc

TiVo itself isn't huge, but pretty much everyone has a DVR these days. I just use that as an example because 10-11 years ago nobody knew what it was, but they knew they didn't need it... until they tried it.

But RSS is like 10-15 years old. How long until it takes off?

Re: RSS Is Dying, and You Should Be Very Worried

#179

Post by xenomachina »

corin_ wrote: post #174
xenomachina wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The worst statement in your comment (other than your use of "worse" in place of "worst") is: anyone who does use RSS, and anyone in the future who learns to use it, won't be put off using it by the loss of that button What about those who use RSS and use that button (like myself)? Won't they be "put off" by the loss of the button? I think you miss the author's main point which is that the usage of the button is low n…

Hitting me where it hurts, a spelling mistake, I guess I should start proof-reading my HN comments. What about those who use RSS and use that button (like myself)? Won't they be "put off" by the loss of the button? If you stop using RSS because the button is no longer there, you clearly didn't actually care about RSS in the first place.

You're basically saying that it's ok to make any UI worse because users will either put up with it or stop using the feature entirely (which just means that they didn't care about the feature in the first place).

Re: RSS Is Dying, and You Should Be Very Worried

#180

Post by Create »

I think it is plain and simply facebook and twitter which are killing RSS. Most normal people have heard about twitter and facebook and have no clue about the cryptic acronym RSS. Which, by-the-way requires a technical degree to understand, and to use (should it rather be v1 v2 or atom? does my pc support the best option?). Is it really a bookmark? Or an inbox? Or a notification? Now one should go through hidden features and install new apps. No sane person would set this up as opposed to a single click in a browser to a twitter feed or the push of a like button.

Like webmail displaced most "normal" people's imap/smtp (with all the firewall misery). Google groups/forums displaced NNTP.

I also feel sad, because RSS was free, while twitter and facebook are careless computing.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2010/dec/14/chrome...

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