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Yahoo Email + RSS Integrates Blogs

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the makes-sense-to-me dept.

yapplejax writes "In the new war of the Internet based applications, Yahoo is testing creating an email folder as the hub for RSS instead of using a web page for the feeds. " I've long thought this was the best way to do it- I've used web and application RSS readers for years, and email clients are simply a better interface.

18 of 133 comments (clear)

  1. Associated Press article by yapplejax · · Score: 3, Informative

    The AP is reporting on this as well.

  2. Bloglines is my answer by phildog · · Score: 5, Insightful
    >I've used web and application RSS readers for years, and email clients are simply a better interface.

    Don't think I've ever seen CmdrTaco reply in comments, but I'd love to hear his reasons for this. I've gone the hardcore geeky route with rss2email and also the true standalone desktop aggregator route. What I've settled on is Bloglines, because I use 4 machines in different locations quite frequently. Bloglines simply makes this easiest and maintains state perfectly between all 4. I'm on win2k, XP, and OSX on those 4 machines. The Bloglines notifier extension for Firefox is quite handy as well.

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  3. Search Technorati for '"river of news" email' by supton · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Be careful with this UI concept: email demands immediate attention. More discussion, via technorati: http://technorati.com/search/%22river+of+news%22+e mail

    1. Re:Search Technorati for '"river of news" email' by supton · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Another good read: "The Problem With RSS Readers Inspired By Outlook"

    2. Re:Search Technorati for '"river of news" email' by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Be careful with this UI concept: email demands immediate attention.
      Only if you let it. Many people do treat email like the phone or an IM client, but reading and responding to email is a task in its own right; something you should sit down for and focus on. If you get lots of email, try ignoring incoming mail if you're working on something else (turn the "new email" sound off!). When you feel like it, process all items in your inbox in one go. Trust me, you'll feel much less "swamped" by your email this way. Oh, and if you're afraid of missing an urgent mail item... if something is really urgent, people will call you, believe me.

      With that said, I prefer the specialised RSS readers over Outlook-lookalikes.
      --
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    3. Re:Search Technorati for '"river of news" email' by Mark+Hood · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I couldn't agree more.

      I used to have my email client beep and flash to tell me I had new email, then I realised I wasn't getting anything done.

      So now, it doesn't even tell me if I have unread mail or not - I check it when I'm not busy, and deal with anything then.

      People still thought I'll respond instantly, but it doesn't take long to train them that if something needs my attention, call me - and if I'm too busy, leave a voice message. They get priority, email is an 'as and when' proposition now.

      Mark

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  4. I like the privacy of anonymity better by CodeShark · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Not to belabor the point, but why would I want a giant provider like Yahoo (or Google for that matter) to have any idea which RSS feeds I am getting?

    Give me a local machine (which is to say non-spyware) version of this and I might just be interested because then my RSS choices don't automatically associate me with any particular group in the corporate and/or government mindsets. For example, if a particular RSS feed is read frequently by a known terrorist, I am also then to be associated with a known terrorist?

    No thanks, I'd rather be invisible and local.

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  5. Big Deal. Use Thunderbird by rueger · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Hmmmph.... news? Thunderbird does RSS just fine, and displays the blog page to boot.

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  6. Re:Is this another path for SPAM? by SpaceAdmiral · · Score: 3, Informative

    Unlike email, people can't just send you an RSS feed. You need to subscribe. (i.e. your RSS-client needs to be set to go check the feed every so often to see if there's anything new)

    To the best of my knowledge, if you get spam from this, it's your own fault for subscribing to crappy feeds.

  7. Old news by porneL · · Score: 3, Informative

    That's nothing new for M2 users...

    1. Re:Old news by Vicsun · · Score: 3, Interesting

      As much as I love Opera and it's email/RSS client, it's not quite the same thing as what Yahoo's offering, the difference being that Yahoo's version is web-based and can be accessed from any computer. I personally use Opera's RSS client at home, since it's just so damn awesome, and Google Reader while on an alien PC.

  8. Getting there by ptomblin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You know, the number of times bloggers try to turn blogging into something more like Usenet, you'd think eventually they'd figure it out and go back to Usenet.

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    1. Re:Getting there by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Usenet is dying because it is not Web 2.0 Compliant.

      Can I tag Usenet groups? Can I delicious them to the bookmarkiverse and flickr them across the photosphere? Can I TrackBack a Usenet post and moblog a counterpost from a flashmob?

      No? Not interested. (sips latte)

  9. depends on the feed by acroyear · · Score: 3, Interesting

    some sites i prefer processing the RSS through Thunderbird (Newsgator can do the same for Outlook users). other sites are more "blog" like to me and I prefer to read it in a blog style. I let LiveJournal syndicate and group them together so I get all my politics blogs in a single place & style, then all my web design feeds in one place, then my science ones, plus I can get my friends' blogs for those that aren't LJ users to be part of my "friends" list as if they all were in once place.

    I've been sketching out ideas and prototypes on a "feedmixer" project, a php system that would do what LJ does in mixing feed entries into a single place, only more like JavaBlogs, it would mix multiple feeds into a single RSS feed, then CSS, XSL, and Ajax can be used to read it in blog style OR you can get them into a single place in Thunderbird.

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  10. Usenet vs. RSS by jfengel · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The most fundamental difference between usenet and RSS is that Usenet is push, and RSS is pull. The push nature of Usenet makes spam really, really easy, and hard to fight. You end up accepting a lot of crap on your machine, and filter it out later. When you go to an RSS feed you know that there is control over it, and if one particular source starts spewing junk you stop reading it.

    It also makes Usenet very democratic: anybody can say anything, anonymously. Those two things will always be opposite sides of the same coin. RSS requires more resources of your own (though there are a remarkable number of free blogging sites, so anybody anywhere can create a blog as long as they have Web access).

    Unfortunately, the number of anonymous sources with brilliant information is infinitesimal compared to the number of people willing to spew crap into whatever data stream is available for free. And that's why bloggers won't go to Usenet: they lack the control necessary to keep readers. RSS gives them that control.

  11. reminds me of USENET by ikanreed+2 · · Score: 3, Funny

    The internet is coming full circle, this is almost like usenet all over again, only with even worse spelling this time around.

  12. And everything old is new again by dv8ed · · Score: 3, Funny

    So we're back to listservs now?

  13. Full circle by commanderfoxtrot · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So we're back to Usenet... finally!

    Has anyone else noticed the trend to read RSS of blogs/forums in an application window- is rather similar to basic old Usenet of old?

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