Find solution
What exactly are Rss feeds?

What is wrong with RSS feeds?

  • My personal supposition is that the proposed benefit of an RSS feed is one that no one can reasonably pass up. Who has the time to continually fetch content, when there's a service that exists to do it for them? How does one logically reject the value proposition of an RSS feed, or really, any other news aggregator, and continue to invest effort into going out to find content? Shouldn't RSS feeds, or at least the technology behind them, make everyone's lives better? Considering their adoption, it's easy to conclude that they don't. But why?

  • Answer:

    It does take some up-front time and effort and some minute amount of technical skill to get your RSS set-up up and running. The sad fact is that the vast majority of web users don't have that. e.g.: Be aware the RSS exists (tech knowledge) Select an RSS reader (time) Find the RSS links for the sites read (tech knowledge, effort) Add and organize the feeds (time and effort and tech knowledge) Refamiliarize oneself with a new UI (effort) Again, these are all very minute amounts of knowledge and effort, but it's a hurdle most don't bother stepping over. Also, the visual layout of most RSS readers it very plain. Simple, but not visually arresting at all. New apps, like flipboard, which mitigate these factors (particularly #1 and #5) seem to actually be making headway.

Marc Ettlinger at Quora Visit the source

Was this solution helpful to you?

Other answers

This is probably both a supply-side issue (people want their produced web content distributed with ads, images, and the rest of its context) and a demand-side issue.   My comment is on the demand (user) side. Personally I like RSS and have a large number of feeds. Once you get it set up it condenses vast amounts of spammy, linky, imagey, attention-grabbing, ad-bearing web "content" into a single, pure, text-only information stream. Nice!  Now this is .. "content". On the other hand, people (myself included) aren't always after pure, glimmer-less "information".  It gets dry... flat .. unleavened.  It seems that a high-potency condensed information stream isn't really a "killer app" for the web. Using a food metaphor, there are cream puffs, pasta, and t-bone steaks (sugar, carbs, protein). There are also browsing, grazing, and serious consumption of high-content information.  RSS is great for one of these combinations.

Jeff Wright

I don't understand it myself.  There seems to have been a big push over the last few years for news aggregator websites and apps but RSS does exactly what I need already.  I can keep tabs on about 50 different websites and blogs that I follow in a single platform with no added fluff.  Perhaps the lack of a structured ecosystem that generates a high level of advertising dollars is the reason why RSS looks like it is being phased out.

Brett Didonato

RSS is geeky. Pretty much like QR codes. But if you use RSS as a backend technology and build on top that, you can create quite a remarkable product, e.g. http://www.skimr.co/. It's a web based RSS reader, but you don't have to know anything about RSS to actually use it. And that I think is the trick.

Petr Kral

Related Q & A:

Just Added Q & A:

Find solution

For every problem there is a solution! Proved by Solucija.

  • Got an issue and looking for advice?

  • Ask Solucija to search every corner of the Web for help.

  • Get workable solutions and helpful tips in a moment.

Just ask Solucija about an issue you face and immediately get a list of ready solutions, answers and tips from other Internet users. We always provide the most suitable and complete answer to your question at the top, along with a few good alternatives below.