RSS Readers, you may or may not be familiar with them, but I am here to tell you that you should in fact get one, and get one now! They can take all of the blogs, media sites, news, and basically any information that your little heart desires and turn it into one cohesive web feed so you can have access to everything all at once.
At one time google reader was everyone’s go to RSS reader, but those days are dead and gone, mostly because google reader now seizes to exist. But since its extinction dozens of RSS readers have been developed. They all have their positives and negatives, and in the end it really does come down to personal preference. But I will break down 3 different RSS readers and tell you what I think:
Digg Reader: This is one of the most popular replacements for google reader, mostly because it is stream lined and very simple to use. The site allows you to browse through a list of different categories based on interests to help you find things that you may want to read or subscribe to. There is also a search bar function where you can search keywords or add a specific website to your feed. Once you subscribe to some sites and blogs that you enjoy Dig places their most recent posts in your feed so you can have easy access to all the information, then if there is a specific article from a blog or site in which you want to reference later, you can hit the “Dig Button” (very similar to the Facebook like button) and it places it in your Diggs folder, where you can find it at a later date. Another nice feature of Digg is it sorts through your subscriptions and places them in order by popularity (based on number of overall views as well as number of links), this can be seen in your popular folder, this is a nice feature because so news sites can upload hundreds of articles in a single day, and who really wants to read all of that information? This way you can get a quick update of the most important information. One of the downfalls of Digg is its aesthetics of the site, it’s really not all that interesting to look at, and it lacks a lot of creative aspects that many people would appreciate.
Feedly: Feedly is very similar to the functionality of Digg; however it embraces the minimalist design but allows its users to customize the interface of their RSS reader. It also breaks the different categories of interest down using small graphics that are visually pleasing. It also breaks down the popularity of the overall blog or site and lets the user know how many people are subscribed to it (Digg also does this, but it is not as clearly presented). Another nice feature of feedly is they update their information about the site constantly, this includes new about new features and updates. They are very involved with having an open dialogue with their users, if you leave them a comment with a question or issue more times than not you will get a direct response from them. In my opinion Feedly is a better RSS feeder then Digg simply for the customer service and the creative applications that it possesses, functionality wise through they are almost identical.
Flipboard: Flipboard is all about the visuals, essentially it does the same functions as other RSS readers however all the blogs are laid out in a magazine style format with colorful and visually appealing graphics. Some of the magazines are also interactive and can be influenced by the viewer. I have not yet signed up for an account with Flipboard but I am considering it, it looks pretty awesome. The homepage and the information presented on it is a little hard to understand especially if you do not know what an RSS reader does. I believe that it was primarily designed to be used for Apple’s iPad, however it can be used with other devices.
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