Information overload via RSS

Note: This post is over 2 years old. You may want to check later in this blog to see if there is new information.

So I’m having what is probably a common experience among bloggers. I loaded up Vienna with a hundred some RSS newsfeeds and now I’m so engrossed in news that I haven’t had time to blog.

I’ve been reading up on world events, web 2.0 sites, AJAX news, marketing, branding and more. It’s been insane. I have the newsreader set to refresh every half an hour, and it includes a couple RSS feeds of searches from digg and del.icio.us, as well as blogs on all of the above mentioned subjects. Within the results returned from those blogs, I often find new and exciting blogs that I add to the feed list. By the time I’ve finished reading all of the stories of interest, there are 50 new stories downloaded and ready to read. While I’m reading I pop open related links in Firefox tabs and when I finish a batch of stories, I jump over to Firefox and read and download some more. It goes on for hours. So I had to make some changes. As far as information overload goes, it just takes some intelligent choices to get the information that matters from the blogs that are the original source of the information. I can flip through most of the digg and delicious links with the spacebar in 30 seconds, and I delete blogs that repost links and do nothing but link to the blogs that I already read. The blogs that really matter to me only post about once a day. I’m starting to get a handle on my news addiction, taking a cue from Roger’s Blog, and finding time once again for blogging AND my life.

RSS Button Maker ScreenshotI know I’m a little behind the eight ball on this one, but a recent report said that only 2 percent of North American adults are using RSS. I tell my friends and family about the wonders of the (relatively) new technology and they look at me in bewilderment. Of course, part of the confusion could be coming from the dilution of the idea through the number of startups fighting for a piece of the action (see image, and this post at Rough Type).

All in all, RSS and RSS aggregators seem to hold the key to channeling the massive tide of information that the blogosphere offers, if we use them intelligently. There may someday come a service that provides a spigot for the tide of information, but I shudder to think who would have the power to regulate the flow of information. For now, I like being the one who chooses what to read, and how to read it. Now if only there were a built in BS filter, given that so many readers seem to lack one of their own.

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  1. Ross Johnson 09.01.06 / 9am

    I have the same problem - and I really have to try and balance the number of feeds I read/pay attention too.

    I mostly have two catagories - The “web-cleb” new sources, such as Andy Budd, Blue Flavor, Veerle, etc… but I also like to read the latest posts by those who are what I describe as “the real industry” - as a lot of these bloggers end up simply posting endless philosophical articles, instead of working and talking ABOUT working in the industry.

    So I have a handful of blogs that to me seem more at the heart of those working in the industry rather than those who are “famous” in the industry.

  2. Michael Wagner 09.01.06 / 10am

    Thanks for sharing your strategy for handling the flood of information available via feeds and blogs.

    I find it overwhelming too.

    And thanks for the link to “Own Your Brand” - much appreciated.

    Good to be part of the conversation with you and others!

  3. Brett 09.01.06 / 5pm

    Update: It’s working. I’ve managed to weed my feeds down to the ones that aren’t repeats. Deleting Yahoo news when I already had Google, Deleting the Digg AJAX search which was turning up the same results as Technorati, and dumping all the blogs that just link all their favorite stories, most of which I was getting first-hand anyway. I’ve got it to a point where I’m getting great information at a usable rate, and I’ve actually posted to my blog 3 times today AND gotten my projects at the office finished!