by Josh on July 8th, 2009

Is Twitter the New RSS?

I have been thinking about this lately. Is Twitter replacing RSS? I mean, I seem to find my articles via Twitter, not my Google Reader.

Ok, here’s my line of thinking.  Twitter is the real-time communication tool of the moment.  The idea of RSS is that you don’t have to run to each site every 20 minutes to see if there’s something new.  Well, Twitter and FriendFeed and the rest all make that insanely easy.  You follow your favorite news sources, magazines, and blogs, and their new articles get sent to you in real time.

But there’s one problem.  If you follow more than 75 people on Twitter, then you don’t get every tweet you follow.  If you follow over 500, you pretty much only get like 5 minutes of history.  So what happens when you’re at work and you can’t check Twitter?  Well, you miss that great post.

Ok, so Twitter won’t be replacing RSS feeds and Google Reader quite yet.  But it could happen.

Do you find yourself neglecting GooReader for Twitter?  Do you think Twitter can replace feeds?

9 Responses

1. 

   I don't neglect Google Reader (in my case Bloglines), because I feel like it's different.

   The stuff that pops into my blog reader always get read. I anticipate them. On Twitter, maybe it's interesting, or quirky or something, but not nearly as reliable. That's the nice thing about RSS. You always know what to expect.

   By stephenbateman on July 9, 2009 at 4:01 am #  (Reply)
   • 

     Yeah, I think I'm just neglecting my reader. It is interesting the levels that happen. I have a few email subscriptions that I always read, then my GooReader I (should) read most of, then Twitter is kind of the random goodness. Choices…

     By Josh Wagner on July 9, 2009 at 12:40 pm #  (Reply)
     • 

       email subscriptions? I've tried those, and they're a guaranteed road to my own insanity. But hey, whatever works for you.

       By stephenbateman on July 9, 2009 at 2:22 pm #  (Reply)
       • 

         Yeah, I posted about it here: http://tr.im/rECI It was a partial response to @readscott's post here: http://tr.im/nTSf Works for me, at least right now. I'm still finding the balance.

         By Josh Wagner on July 10, 2009 at 12:09 am #  (Reply)
2. 

   I still use Google reader, but some people I just don't bother subscribing to because they update twitter enough for me to get a link from that. I do find the shortened twitter titles more helpful than full articles at times, too.

   By David Mikucki on July 10, 2009 at 9:30 pm #  (Reply)
   • 

     I hadn't thought about shorter titles on Twitter. One good thing about Twitter is its brevity. You have to be concise or you'll run out of space!

     By Josh Wagner on July 10, 2009 at 9:43 pm #  (Reply)
3. 

   I use both… Seeing as how you posted this on July 8th and I'm finally reading it on July 15th ten points to whomever can guess how I got to this post…

   By Graham Brenna on July 16, 2009 at 3:40 am #  (Reply)
   • 

     Me thinks it's maybe RSS… :p That's ok, the posts don't go anywhere. Although it is kinda fun to be the first comment in a post because you saw it flash by on Twitter.

     By Josh Wagner on July 16, 2009 at 12:11 pm #  (Reply)
     • 

       true story!

       By Graham Brenna on July 16, 2009 at 12:59 pm #  (Reply)