DISQUS

Chris Brogan · 2 months ago

Your idea wins because Twitter is a flowing stream and so people dipping in late miss the simplicity of searching back and finding the good stuff. I capture your shares via RSS feed so I can read them on my time. Yes, you can RSS feed Scoble's Twitter feed, but it's less elegant than this defined space and stream you've created explicitly for sharing blog tidbits.

Eoghann · 2 months ago

Scoble has a tendency towards making these hyperbolic statements. Which gets reactions I guess, but it's not an accurate reflection of what's really going on. It's not at all clear to me why anyone would exclusively use one method over the other as they seem to address different needs.

Speed is not the be all end all of information gathering particularly if you're looking for commentary rather than CNN style reportage.

Brian Remmel · 2 months ago

Interesting comparison Louis.

It does seems to me that @scoblefaves is only one click away from the full source data also; both the link to the original tweet and the link to the external content are included.

Louis Gray · 2 months ago

That is true. Interestingly, it shows two links - the first to the tweet that was favorited, and the second to the original content, assuming there was a link.

Mahendra · 2 months ago

No wonder I get tired doing both! ;)

Louis Gray · 2 months ago

But isn't it so much fun? I spend a lot more time on FriendFeed than Twitter, but it's essentially the same process.

Mahendra · 2 months ago

Yes it is! After all, filtering is my job and I love it. To clarify, my shares on Twitter are not just faves or RTs, but my shares from GReader.

At times, I will tweet about something but not share it on GReader and vice versa - it depends. Catchy headlines seem to be what people on Twitter like, whereas GReader folks have longer attention spans beyond just the headlines.

Another factor that comes into play for someone like me is the time zone difference. It's easier for me to catch up on GReader shares from US folks when my day starts than it is to catch up with their tweets. Hence, for lasting permanence, when sharing items, I make sure I share on GReader whether I tweet it or not.

Eric Matas · 2 months ago

LG - I wonder what you think about socialmedian - ? I stop by once a day (compared to 4-5 at friendfeed), but I've noticed fewer and fewer comments on socialmedian. More readers seem to go to the original post (like me, here) to comment and interact. Still, you and I feed our Google Readers to socialmedian. What do you think of SM? (Thanks, Eric)

ncaitan · 2 months ago

Very interesting comparison. I must admit I prefer your approach, Scoble is Twitter biased.

Ian Hendry · 2 months ago

It's an interesting question Louis. Certainly RSS seems to have been the preserve of nerds to date, whereas Twitter is showing a greater mainstream appeal which means that sharing content that way is likely to see it reaching more eyeballs -- which is surely the point of sharing it in the first place.

We've been hedging our bets on this for some time now, making key content from our site such as sales leads and a feed of community discussions available in both ways (exmaple on our homepage of RSS and Twitter feeds of our Biz Need sales leads). The stats show we get WAY more people following the Twitter streams than we do RSS, but we're keeping both for now.

The irony is that our Twitter feed is fed with sales leads via... you guessed it! RSS!

Ian Hendry
CEO, WeCanDo.BIZ
http://www.wecando.biz

timbauer · 2 months ago

Louis, nice article. I have found recently that I returned to Google Reader as part of my daily information as its 'tighter' in its flow. Twitter has a ton of RT noise on the same topic if you follow alot. That said, I can scan information quicker in TweetDeck than in google reader.

I sense I will use both as I interact more in TweetDeck than in Reader (RT, Favs, reply's, etc).

jeffisageek · 2 months ago

I have started using feedly. With that I share the story and then click on the tweet button so it goes to both google reader and twitter.

stu · 2 months ago

Louis,
Good comparison. I would add that many of Scoble's favorites are not links (often mentions of @scobleizer) and that I find it much easier to scroll through GReader than a favorites page (especially if a couple of day's have gone since I've checked). It really depends where you spend your time - I'm in GReader often enough that I like the shared links (which is very easy to reshare or scan w/o extra clicks), the Twitter favorites I tend to see on FriendFeed as I'm unlikely to go to the page on Twitter or to FavStar on a regular basis.

AdamPieniazek · 2 months ago

By old and antiquated does Scoble mean that RSS is reliable, established, and doesn't crash 15 times a day? If so, I agree!

I use both, but they're both two different techs with two different goals. I use twitter to talk to people and share info, I use RSS to find and learn info.

Mark Essel · 2 months ago

*repost from a friendfeed comment*
Freaking awesome run down of information filtering/curating methods. I dream of building the automattic LouisGray, but it's not going to happen. My backup plan, building tools that help Robert and Louis manage information flow. Providing value to you gents is the key to helping many folks manage information in the coming years.

admarketingguy · 2 months ago

Unfortunately, it is sometimes impossible to silence the Twitter "noise" without multiple accounts, whereas; G-Reader is self disciplined in getting what you want, when you want it.

Tina Aspiala · 2 months ago

Hi, I have no idea what Scoble thinks of all this, but just to clarify, I set up @scoblefaves as a little personal experiment to make Twitter more useful for me. Didn't mean to lead anyone on to think it was his account. More details here: http://spongefile.tumblr.com/post/173876204/sco...

Actually, what may be ironic here is that I'm using RSS to send Scoble's faves to that account. :)

manielse · 2 months ago

When it comes to Twitter as a news source, it is very inefficient way to receive news. First, it is blended with other status messages and crowdsourced based on who you follow. If everybody decided to no longer read RSS, I'd argue that there would very little link sharing beyond the largest web sites.

Second, Twitter requires you to leave the "Twitter experience" to know more. GReader gives you more story in most feeds without needing to leave the RSS Reader (plus the Better GMail plugin even embeds the whole story very well).

William Mougayar · 2 months ago

Both methods are viable and the choice of usage reflects on the type of user rather than on the rightness of the method itself.
There's a production aspect and a consumption aspect.
I think both RSS and Twitter will co-exist gracefully and the elegance of their intertwinement is only going to get better.

RogerJH · 2 months ago

Great post Louis. I use both Google Reader RSS and Twitter, and have the same goals as you and Robert: providing up to date content that's of value to my audience.

But I am with you on the future of these technologies. Robert is wrong about RSS. It is not dead, it is just getting started! I think the barrier to entry for RSS is marginally higher than Twitter, perhaps explaining its less well-publicized adoption. But I bet you there are as many RSS users as Twitter users. And as you explain the flexibility of RSS offers to deliver richer user experiences than can be offered with Twitter.

One of my best tools is to use both. I take Twitter RSS feeds from users and searches of particular interest and embed the feed in category pages in iGoogle. That way I have the immediacy of Twitter with the organizational capacity of RSS. It's good for aggregating information, but not disseminating it. As I've discussed on my blog, apps that integrate aggregation and dissemination is a huge opportunity for developers right now.

Johnny Worthington · 2 months ago

If Twitter integrates a way of displaying article pictures, then maybe. I read shiny catalogs, not the classifieds

Damond Nollan · 1 month ago

I am with you, Louis. While I respect Scoble's opinion, I still see a lot of value in Google Reader. In fact, it is one of the most used sites for me. It's is how I am able to stay abreast of the world news. Thank you for making a well stated post in favor of GR.