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Week Four : RSS...not so simple
Every week, I've been learning something new - not just about technology, but about how much I unconsciously already knew. I've been using RSS for a while now, but before this class, I was using the feeds function of IE, and it was working all right. But now that I've set up a Bloglines account, I can see much bigger potential for RSS.
I suppose I should start with my peeves and what I feel are the limitations of RSS, so I can end on a good note. So here we go. My biggest peeve with bloglines (and google reader too) is that videos on blogs do not display (UPDATE: videos and photos now display, as of July 2008). Several of the blogs I look at use video content, and it doesn't show on my bloglines feeds. I also miss seeing the content on the original site - the bloglines format is easy to use, laid out well, and all the rest, but I miss seeing the customization that is so much a part of blog design. I also don't follow SO many blogs and sites that I couldn't keep up with them. I've found myself still checking the original sites, and forgetting about my handy new aggregator, just because I've established habits. I can see the potential for RSS, though.
Another thing I find annoying about using bloglines is to monitor the comments for this class blog - all of the context is lost (the original post, which comments go together, etc.). I may not be utilizing the full potential of bloglines, and there may be a way to fix it, but for now, that's a huge limitation for me.
I do really like using RSS for news, and can see real potential for using it as a librarian (for example, to put together news scans on current events of concern for the users or staff of my library), but I could probably take it or leave it for monitoring blogs. That will probably change as I find more blogs that I want to monitor, and want to do more scanning of headlines, but right now it doesn't take too much time to keep up with the sites I follow on a regular basis.
My quote of the week comes from Robin Good's article : "RSS is also something that once you have read its description, you know less about it than you did before."
The case studies this week all used RSS in slightly different ways, and I have some clear favourites - notably Tacoma Public Library and Hennepin County Library (though I liked that NHMCCD is providing access to academic journals via this method). I liked the same things about both of these sites - the ease of use, simplicity of layout, explanation and background information on RSS, and amount of customization available. I liked Tacoma's use of general and specific RSS feeds (you can subscribe to all programming news, or just adults or children), and Hennepin provides a lot of choices for customization. If I was to set up RSS feeds for a library, I would definitely use these libraries as a guide.
I also really liked the common craft video once again. So simple, and so informative. If only I could find a way to simplify my postings (this one is again, way longer than I had planned).
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Hi Jaclyn,
When I read your critique of bloglines it reminded me of something that I have also noticed. I am a first-time user of bloglines, and I may not be aware of all the features and functions but I agree with you that there are some limitations.
Having subscribed to the feeds for new postings from lis9763, I find that it would be a lot easier if I could reply directly in bloglines!
If I notice that a number of people have posted new entries, I find myself reading the entire entry on bloglines, then I want to respond immediately, but I have to go back to the course website and remember who it was and find them on the class site to post a comment.
Is this your experience as well? Is there a way to post a comment through bloglines instead of coming back to our lis9763 site?
I am very new to RSS and have so far only checked out Google reader. But, possibly in answer to your issues with not being able to view comments in context via your RSS aggregator, I have found Google reader pretty effective in this respect. I have it set up in such a way that the RSS feeds from this class display on my iGoogle homepage so every time I open the web browser, I am faced with the titles of the most recent blog posts and comments. This way I can just click on the links and the original content opens in another tab. It's an effective alert system to new content and I don't have to read the content without its context.
I've found it pretty convenient so far, the only limitation of this method being I sometimes don't know what certain posts are about (if titles are somewhat ambiguous) but, I am online so frequently that I haven't found it a problem to simply check every posting listed. Also, I suppose if a person were to subscribe to many feeds, this method may not be the most effective. But, for me as an early RSS user (who only subscribes to this class currently), it works.
Hi Katrina,
To make responding to blog entries and comments you can click on the title of the post (it's blue and underlined) in Bloglines and it opens up the blog post in another browser. So, it's not exactly replying directly in Bloglines but it does make it easier to find the page!
Yeah, I agree with yourself and Katrina, Jaclyn, I find reading the comments to be somewhat unintuitive. Although it is nice to be notified when someone comments, it can be frustrating to not know the context of the reply immediately. I wonder if that's how all blogs are or just this particular one. I've really not played with RSS enough to know. If it is a universal issue, it's certainly a limitation that will need to be "fixed" if RSS actually wants to trump social networking sites, blogs or even e-mail!
"Everything I say is a lie...
... in fact, I'm lying to you right now..."
You bring up a great point on one of the limits of aggregators, Jaclyn. Seeing comments out of context is often unhelpful and I think Google Reader and Bloglines both have a long way to go to fixing that. It's not you -- it's definitely an example of one of the ways that the technology hasn't kept up with the way people use it.
Thanks everyone for your input - it's good to know I'm not the only one finding these issues with RSS...and hoping for solutions in the future.