Observation: Twitter > RSS
Now that I’ve been using Twitter for some time, I’ve noticed a change in the way I learn about new things on the web. I’m a believer and proponent of RSS feeds for some time, calling this technology a “game changer.”
But now, I find myself using my RSS reader less and less. I still do check my feeds for any updates, but it’s second behind Twitter. I’m more apt to follow links published by Twitter users even though the actual URL is obscured by a URL shortener like tinyurl. Why is that?
Maybe it’s because I share similar interests with those that I follow on Twitter so any links they provide are more to my liking? Also, I think Twitter users serve as a kindof filter for noise on the Net so that anything that they promote is more worthwhile than an RSS feed of a blog post with only a catchy title.
I’m not saying that I’ll abadon my RSS feeds anytime soon, but Twitter has supplanted RSS as my first source of interesting information.
March 9, 2009 @ 4:40 pm
I agree with you that Twitter is becoming a first check for me as well for new links/news, although I can’t quite part with Techmeme (or more recently, TechFuga), Hackernews, Del.icio.us popular, and Google Reader (which I need to prune since I can’t keep up with it either…)
Oh, and have you checked out http://longurl.org or http://www.longurlplease.com – great way to find out what it is you’re clicking on before landing on Rickroll or worse.
March 9, 2009 @ 10:27 pm
chrys, thanks for the links. I just follow your Twitter links for the good stuff! Haven’t tried the longurl services and have been lucky so far regarding being rickrolled. Also been using the new service, Ginx, which manages the long/shorten URL issue (along with other problems with Twitter).