Is RSS Dead?

I came across an interesting article indicating that RSS has some major problems. Do not get confused by the title, it is a bit exaggerating and, as most headlines, just tries to catch as many readers as possible. And "war" against something IT related, most people heard of but have no idea what it is doing, is always a good start.

I have to admit I would not care much if RSS would just be gone. I use my iPad to read some feeds every morning while drinking my coffee. Now my coffee is something you would have to rip out of my cold, dead hands but everything else is optional as long as I have a quiet environment.

Back when I started adding blogs to my feed reader it was the easiest way to stay up to date what interesting people had to say and what was going on in the world wide web. But today I get most of this thru Twitter and Facebook. Actually there is a Twitter account for every blog and most sites I read. Let us break it down to the basics.

Most news sites have a Twitter account. Some do not have one, at least I believe they do not have one, but there is no reason to check them on a regular basis. I do not need World of Warcraft news all the day. If I read a blog and think it could be valuable to follow I add the author on Twitter. Webcomics? Essential - but see news sites.

I see the advantages of RSS but for me it would be okay if it just goes away. One application less to take care of. The only thing that could save RSS is comfort. But there is an easy way to test it. From Saturday I will use my iPad (the only device I use for reading RSS feeds) without RSS reader. I'll just throw all the links as bookmark in Safari and make a new list on Twitter. I target Saturday and not tomorrow since I will not have enough time to prepare everything today. Give me seven days and watch out for my report about a life without RSS.

>> posted on April 19, 2012, midnight in web