As we move farther and farther into a digital age filled with information sources, the feed aggregator becomes a collective information inbox. By using a powerful feed reader, one can read, categorize, prioritize, and share the various bits of data coming into view with a minimal amount of information management overhead. I use my feed reader to gather news, technical discussions, hobby-related discussion information, interesting photos from Flickr, event information, and news from in-person groups where I participate.
Over time, I’m finding that information without feeds tends to get forgotten. This includes websites without feeds, discussion forums, and other online amusements that don’t serialize well into RSS or Atom. There’s a few of these sites where I kick myself when I realize I haven’t read them in a weeks, but for the most part, using a feed aggregator as my information funnel has worked out well. For better or for worse, the reality is becoming that if it’s not in my feed reader, it doesn’t exist (to me).
[tags]feeds, rss, aggregators, googlereader, information[/tags]
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I agree but then with something like 1000 feeds I see much more than I’d ever cover browsing. In a recent post I shared about 400 feeds just related to the CAD software tools I use.
A mix of blogs, Discussion Group and other resources that are a brilliant reference which would be impossible to follow without a feedreader.
http://rcd.typepad.com/rcd/2008/01/its-all-about-f.html
Cannot agree with you more. Feed readers have changed the way I digest information. I personally use Spokeo (http://www.spokeo.com), which helps me keep track of my friends and my favorite blogs at the same time.
For the past few years I’ve spent more time in a browser than in any of my e-mail accounts.
After unsubscribing from most of the e-mail newsletters I receive, and adding their feed to Google Reader, I’m spending more time in my feed reader than on any other Web site.