Why I’m using a RSS reader (again)

Many moons ago, I moved from a personal handwritten RSS reader to Bloglines.  Then, a few years ago, I stopped using Bloglines (before they were bought).  I had too many feeds on Bloglines and was spending less time on the computer after work.  I also had some big personal happenings taking a lot of time, and was burnt out on learning new technologies.

So, for a couple of years, I read blogs occasionally, but didn’t subscribe to them in a reader.  The ones that really spoke to me were either visited regularly (by memory) or subscribed to via email (and often unsubscribed quickly).

But recently, I have been consuming a lot more content.  I think there are a number of reasons for this, but the biggest is that the household has an iPad. The iPad is crappy for creating content, but is fantastic for consuming it.  I also enjoy the ability to email articles with the tap of the finger.

Last week, I found myself visiting the same seven or eight sites over and over again, to see if there was anything new posted.  After the third go-around, I mentally kicked myself and said, ‘that’s what an RSS reader is for!’.

By happenstance, I saw an article on HackerNews about the NewsBlur founder around the same time, and decided to check NewsBlur out.  I actually appreciate the limited number of blogs available on the free version of NewsBlur–I hope that will help me avoid the blog overflow that occured last time.