Twitter and RSS feeds
Sunday, March 1, 2009 at 10:58AM 
When I first started using Twitter, one of the things that used to really irritate me was people posting links to new blog posts via Twitter.
I mean, that's what RSS feeds are for, right?
I even went as far as to unfollow persistent offenders as it really riled me so much.
So here we are a year or two later (maybe longer?) and I find I've mellowed in my approach to posting blog links in Twitter.
Heck, you may be even reading this from the link I posted in Twitter :-)
Since my initial opposition to blog links in twitter, I've seen Twitter start to become the primary source for news and information that previously I have relied on RSS feeds to supply. So much so that, my backlog of RSS feeds in Google Reader is becoming larger by the day.
I'm not 100% sure why this is the case? I suppose a couple of things are at play here.
Subscribing to Twitter is like subscribing to a real time RSS feed that is highly selective and filtered.
As I follow like minder individuals and interesting people, I find that the links invariably are interesting to me. On a side note, if I don't follow you, it doesn't mean that I don't find you like minded or interesting, it's just I've had to put a cap on the number of people I follow to find it manageable. It's just not feasible to follow everyone that follows me.
If I see a tweet link come in it's usually fresh and timely. The converse of this is extreme irritation if some one links to older posts or info - it happens a lot.
As tweets are streaming past in real time, it's easy to dip in and out at leisure. To catch up on my RSS feeds requires a significant investment in time.
Whilst out and about, it just seems easier to monitor Twitter using Tweetie that it is to catch up on RSS via Mobile Google Reader or even Byline. One of the really neat features of Tweetie is the inclusion of Instapaper so that if I do come across an interesting link, I can simply post it to Instapaper for reading later.
I don't suppose I'll completely give up on RSS feeds but I have to admit they certainly don't have the level of visiblity they've previously had.
Reader Comments (14)
Hi Don.
Have to agree with you on this one. Apart from getting a lot of my news from tweets now I'm also finding that the instant feedback from people reading and replying with their thoughts is something that I enjoy.
As far as comments on posts go I usually scroll down the first page, but rarely go and further when reading comments.
cheers
Don, I think you expose the flaw in this approach as you explain it. As you say, you can't follow everyone - so you are already explicitly narrowing your field of exposure. That is going to end up giving you a very artificial view, dictated not by your own preferences but by your capacity to follow.
Relying just on Twitter is akin to following the news by only listening to conversations at parties. It is skewed, biased and filtered by the circle of friends invited to those parties. It is a self-reinforcing bias. It is the ultimate, online expression of the chinese whisper effect - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_whispers
Now, you can counter this by saying that you read all of the links posted. But even that is subject to bias - tweets will typically link only to a post or article that supports the tweeter's personal viewpoint on the story.
I know Leo Laporte is working this way now - and as a long-time listener, I have seen his breadth of knowledge and awareness of things diminish somewhat. He is frequently stating things from a very high-level, casual awareness, and then having to correct himself a few minutes later as he reads the actual news article or blog post and has to amend his assumptions.
What Twitter excels at is allowing one to assess a communitites response to events. I personally prefer to get the news itself first with less of the emotional colour and bias filtering that Twitter applies.
I see your point David, but in some ways, using Twitter rather than just RSS does give me a wider viewpoint. I see many more links and articles from sources I usually wouldn't see as I'm not subscribed to those particular RSS feeds. So it is beneficial in that respect.
I think your point needs to be aimed at a higher level than Twitter and RSS - both could be construed as a highly filtered source of information. You really need to keep in touch with the real world and have other inputs and stimuli. It's all too easy to become immersed in a bubble of your own creation by using these selective technologies to feed you with information.
Something I really need to work on but I do feel that Twitter is giving me a wider range of information than just subscribing to RSS feeds.
Well, you will have the advantage of a many more followers than me - that will make the Twitter bubble larger and broader.
But I can definitely agree with your main response point - it is about multiple sources of information and also the real world. Alas, whenever I see/hear this discussed, that is rarely mentioned.
As for opening one's eyes to other things, I thought the snake oil get rich quick marketing uber entrepreneur was dead in the nineties. Twitter proves there are still plenty of those types sloshing around!
Not only still sloshing around, David, but getting bolder and more daring as well. Now, would either of you be interested in this great ointment I have, derived in no small part from the venom of a cobra? Just follow this link, and it will cure all your ills and make you rich! :-)
Shame to see the infiltration of such messages but probably unavoidable. Just have my finger hovering over the "Unfollow" button - luckily TweetDeck makes it easy to unfollow.
As an aside though, even with the "relatively" large number of followers, I see very little Twitter spam.
But it drives me nuts seeing someone Tweet three day old information. Actually, three hour old information is starting to irritate.
And don't even mention when Gmail goes down :-)
Seriously, you can also look at it like this:
@DonMcAllister - I Posted a blog
@DavidBCohen - I have read your blog and replied!
@DonMcAllister I have read your reply and replied!
@DavidBCohen I have read your reply to my reply and replied!
@DonMcAllister Oh-Ho, Master Cohen! Have at thee!
@DavidBCohen - Ah-HA! Engarde!
... sorry, I think I needed more sleep last night...
To shift the conversation slightly, I have a link only feed for my blog on Twitter. Months ago I grabbed my own blog name for fear of some squatter pinching the it down the road (I was inspired by http://twitter.com/daringfireball), but I left it dormant for a long time. I finally set it up to auto-tweet the title and permalink of every new post to my blog. It's entirely impersonal and auto-follows everyone who follows it.
I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand I should be denounced as the spammer that I am. The account is in complete violation of the spirit of Twitter, if not the letter. It's dirty business.
But then again why shouldn't Twitter be the new RSS? If someone wants to follow an account that does nothing but provide links to fresh blog posts then have at it. I follow the CBC (http://twitter.com/cbcnews) and a few other news outlets for just this reason.
In any case, I've been looking to ease my conscience on this matter. Your blog post, Don, gave me the occasion. Cheers.
My knee jerk reaction was one of horror :-)
But actually, as you say, it's up to people if they want to follow you or not. Thinking about it, that might really be a great use for twitter in providing a real time feed of updated content, but you can opt out or opt in.
The only comment I would make is that in this sort of scenario, if I was following your automated twitter account and your personal twitter account, I'd not want to see you post links to your blog in the personal account.
I only dip into Twitter and RSS feeds a couple of times a day, so if I relied on Twitter alone, I'd miss lots of news which is "hot" for an hour or so but is long gone by the time I look at Twitter.
With RSS, I can catch up at the end of the day and see what I've missed (Safari beta 4 being released earlier in the day, for example).
Oh, and I'm really beginning to hate two things on Twitter: 1) Spam and 2) Its popularity (I'm thinking of leaving Twitter (as I did with Facebook) as I don't like being part of a large crowd. Once my mum joins Twitter, I'm out!
Well, instead of blog posts I have people who post their new YouTube videos! I don't mind it though.
Slightly off topic but... I absolutely despise Twitter. I gave it a whirl and found it to be a colossal burden. There's too much noise. Too much of what passes for information (much of it seemed either questionable or useless or spammy). There's not enough time for the stream-of-consciousness dribble. I'd rather have the meat and potatoes of thoughtful, informative blogs. Yes, my Twitter account is gone, deleted, off into oblivion. And you know what? I feel liberated.
So, Don. I'm glad you're back to blogging. The Tweets were just too much. Thanks!
Glad I got that off my chest :)
Don: Have you come across http://www.twitterfall.com A web app made by a couple of Yorkshire guys. It's great for it's filter capabilities. I really recommend it and if you haven't checked it out already to have a look.