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Slashdot Asks: Do You Still Use RSS?

Posted by msmash on from the changing-habits dept.

Real Site Syndication, or RSS has been around for over a decade but it never really managed to lure regular web users (though maybe it wasn't built to serve everyone). So much so that even Google cited declining usage of Google Reader, at one time the most popular RSS reader service, as one of the two reasons for shutting down the service. With an increasingly number of people looking at Facebook and Twitter for news, we thought it would be a good time to ask the following question: Do you use any RSS reader app? If yes, do you think it is still a good way to keep track of the "new stuff" that your favorite sites publish?

9 of 438 comments (clear)

  1. I mean I got this article through RSS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I've never understood why people have gone away from it. It's the most effective way to track a ton of websites in entirety. I think of my RSS feed as my morning newspaper. I follow literally hundreds of websites, journals, and blogs using it, and I can churn through it all in maybe twenty minutes at my keyboard each day on inoreader.

    1. Re:I mean I got this article through RSS by thegarbz · · Score: 5, Funny

      bullshit

      Yes that is exactly what replaced getting broad and different views on a variety of topics.

    2. Re:I mean I got this article through RSS by E-Rock · · Score: 5, Funny

      Are you sure he doesn't get bonus points for being able to make that work?

  2. Yes, I do. by alexru · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I would not be reading this if there was not RSS. I don't have time to manually check dozens of sites for updates.

  3. Re:RTS? by synaptik · · Score: 5, Informative

    Because it's actually Rich Site Summary, or alternatively "Really Simple Syndication"

    --
    HSJ$$*&#^!#+++ATH0
    NO CARRIER
  4. Not since Google Reader folded. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    RIP Google Reader.

    Fuck you, Google.

  5. Yup. The Old Reader by kwerle · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://theoldreader.com/

  6. Firefox Live Bookmarks in the Bookmarks Toolbar by m0gely · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is probably the single reason why FF is still my primary browser, though I'm happy with it otherwise. It's the best way to peruse headlines because you never have to visit the site. It's probably saved my eyes from more distraction than any other feature I can think of.

  7. Yes, I use it, and It IS RSS by CAOgdin · · Score: 5, Informative

    Only a professional cares, but Aaron Swartz named his product RSS, and it's still RSS.

    I live in RSS (Rssowl) every morning. I get all the news I need and can make selective choices about which ones I read (Google News, for instance, posts a lot of Sports crap I couldn't care less about, so I can see the title and know it's not worth my time to click.

    I'm dismayed by the number of sites that no longer provide RSS feeds (I'm looking at you, Daily Kos), and I'm disappointed that RSS aficionados are letting the RSS clients slide by without improvement (Rssowl v2.2.1 was last released at the end of 2013).

    We RSS BELIEVERS need to band together and tell the major sites they need to support RSS clients; the software's free, and they can still inject their ads!