Did Twitter Kill RSS Readers?

By jeffcTwitter

There seems to be a meme traveling across the web about whether or not RSS is dead and if it has been replaced by Twitter. The answer is no. While I can admit to not using my FeedReader as much since following some key figures on Twitter, RSS is still a staple fold for keeping an eye on things outside of the Twittersphere. Because I’ve paid special attention to who I follow on Twitter, I don’t have to worry so much about unwanted noise or seeing a bunch of links unrelated to what I write about. While I would still like to have stronger filtering, I’ve managed to simply deal with it and hone in on the good stuff.

However, to limit yourself to Twitter instead of RSS is a dumb move because your feedreader provides you the opportunity to see the bigger picture. You get to see many viewpoints instead of just one. You get to see trends outside of what people are talking about. Instead of updates or cool posts from here or their on the web, your feedreader serves the purpose of bringing all sorts of great information from across the web to you in one location.

So don’t let anyone fool you. RSS is not dead.

24 thoughts on “Did Twitter Kill RSS Readers?”

  7. However, for people whose tweets I care about – very few of the people I follow, actually – I add their twitter feeds to Google Reader. I get my news, my tech updates, my education and my important updates all through the one source. Whether it’s RSS or something else, it all sits in the RSS reader.

    Twitter hasn’t killed RSS, but tools like Google Reader have made the distinction less relevant.

  9. RSS is much more useful than just letting you read blogs offline. It also
    provides a lot of intrastructure for getting information from new writers
    to the interested reader who doesn’t now about it. RSS enable aggretators
    such as Feed Distiller and blog search engines, to find content that
    simply wouldn’t be found otherwise.

  11. OK, that’s a bit controversial, but I could work without Twitter, I couldn’t work with RSS.

    Both may evolve. No they will evolve. But I guess something like RSS will be always necessary as long as there is a web.

    Twitter is great — I tweet — but it isn’t essential in the same way.

  13. Twitter NEVER more than RSS.

    Twitter is ONLY like a “plugin’s” on a blog. And RSS is just like a “comment form”.

    So, what you think about a blog without a comment form?

    That’s our opinion.

    Thanks,
    To Make Money On Internet

  16. I still use my reader every single day. I use Twitter too but feel that I can get the content I want to read better from a reader.

  19. I am a fan of rss readers as I think you can sit down and get up dated on everything that is important to you. With twitter you are constantly distracted by its up dates and it tends to take over, I like twitter but don’t think it has replaced RSS.

  20. Twitter is great for holding informal conversations and such, but once you get past maybe 50 followers, it’s too easy to let a good posting slip past you (plus, not everyone (myself included) spams his Twitter account with every posting he makes! No, RSS is not dead. RSS is just beginning to catch on.

  23. I use both twitter, and rss and this system works great! I don’t get half the posts I read on google reader in twitter. The idea that twitter killed rss is, as Dubito says, rubbish.

  24. In fact, the whole claim is rubbish.

    I use Twitter. I tweet.

    However, for people whose tweets I care about – very few of the people I follow, actually – I add their twitter feeds to Google Reader. I get my news, my tech updates, my education and my important updates all through the one source. Whether it’s RSS or something else, it all sits in the RSS reader.

    Twitter hasn’t killed RSS, but tools like Google Reader have made the distinction less relevant.

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