RSS and RSS Readers

Many who read this blog may be unfamiliar with RSS and RSS readers. By some accounts, RSS is an old technology – still around, but not the way most now discover online content to read.

I still teach my advanced ed tech students how to use RSS to follow online sources. I make no apology for this. I expect technology leaders to be better informed than those who such leaders propose to assist and I believe RSS offers an approach to controlling awareness not available with social services such as Twitter. RSS allows the learner to identify valued sources and follow these sources for updates. It does not rely on others to locate and then share information from such sources. RSS and “social discovery” have unique advantages and disadvantages and I believe it is best to combine the approaches rather than to rely on one or the other.

If you are unfamiliar with RSS (real simple syndication), think of it as a way for a user to receive notice when sites the user designates have been changed. Such a system is particularly important with blogs and podcasts. A user might follow hundreds of such sites each of which may be updated on an unpredictable schedule. It would be highly inefficient for the user to go to each site and see if something has changed (a new post or podcast has been added). An RSS reader takes care of the searching and offers a user a list of just the updates.

I am presently using three “readers” (obviously more than I need, but I try to experiment to be able to offer recommendations). These readers include Feedly, Reeder 2, and NetNewsWire. I work mainly from Apple hardware and I use these services on both the desktop and the tablet. I have paid for accounts for Reeder and NetNewsWire. Feedly would possibly be my favorite, but their “pro” account requires a monthly fee. I prefer to pay one time and so use the free version.

Feedly

Feedly

 

Reeder 2

reeder 2

 

NetNewsWire

netnewswire

 

What you see here are the desktop views for all three services. The systems look very similar. Each has three panels (not all may be visible) displaying the feed sources, the headline view, and a detailed view. The detailed view may contain the entire article or it will contain a smaller portion if the author has limited the amount of content to be made available via RSS. I use both the desktop and mobile apps, but prefer the desktop view because I like to scan the detailed views. I can do this quickly on a larger screen. Each service offers a button for moving from post to post (identified by a red square).

I use an RSS reader in a particular way. I prefer to use the readers to scan content and to save the material I want to use for some future purpose to Evernote. All readers offer some way to “share” content, but Reeder 2 works best for me. Evernote sharing is a “pro” feature in Feedly and not one of the present options in NetNewsWire. For those who do not mind an extra step, there is an easy work around. You can open the original article in a browser from the reader and then use an Evernote extension to upload the content from the browser.

 

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