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Andrey “Rarst” Savchenko —  — Web — comparison, rss-feeds, twitter

Twitter makes everything look 140 characters

Twitter I find it ironic how linkbait posts about Twitter killing blogging are made outside of Twitter. It’s was bit harder for me to handle post about Twitter replacing RSS – which I got in my RSS reader .

Don’t want to write about blogging in general, but chances of Twitter replacing RSS are lower than those of snowball in hell.

Purpose

  • RSS is family of standardized formats for publishing updates.
  • Twitter is social network/micro-blogging service.

Can centralized service (rather famous for being down) replace format? Can Google Docs replace text ? Can Yahoo Pipes replace programming? No.

I can:

  1. write custom software for generating RSS feed with specific content ;
  2. host it with local HTTP file server ;
  3. channel through FeedBurner ;
  4. syndicate it into my sidebar.

Look to the right and see (those in RSS reader might need to visit blog for that).

Can’t host my own Twitter.

Meta information

  • RSS update comes with plenty of information including (but not limited to) source, author, precise publishing time, unique identifier of publisher’s choice.
  • Twitter updates can use #tag s. And most of links are packed with shortening services – killing usability for the sake of service model.

Actually both allow complex mashups. Difference is RSS gives you Internet as source, Twitter gives you Twitter.

Organization

I want replies to my comments in blogs I read for last two days and ten recent anime episodes downloaded by my friends… What do you mean Twitter can’t do that?

I had once wrote in message to Chuck Westbrook that “twitter might look like stupid mess from outside ”. From inside it’s no longer stupid but still a mess. Focus on short and fresh doesn’t go well with research and boring precise details.

Communication

Twitters excels at adding communication to those updates.

  1. I am not alone at being introvert and communication with rest of Internet every second sounds grim.
  2. I can’t stand people behind some blogs I read. Thought of having to communicate (even if only at receiving end) with them is sickening.

Communication is good, but in my opinion it’s last thing needed in pure process of receiving updates .

Coverage

It took years but RSS is getting omnipresent in web publishing. You might be clueless about RSS is but when you use popular blogging platform (service or self-hosted either) then it handles RSS and makes it available for your readers that might want to use it.

Don’t know CMS that comes bundled with Twitter account.

Overall

Get my updates via RSS or follow me on Twitter to get in touch with me . But don’t confuse the two or you will loose what you wanted to Twitter hype shot.

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10 Comments

  • Lyndi #

    I would rate the chances of Twitter replacing RSS a bit lower than you just have. I cannot even see how the two can be compared, let alone the one replacing the other.

  • Rarst #

    @Lyndi That would probably be like chances of frost in hell? :) Problem with popular IT products that dedicated fan base starts to confuse their favorite stuff with IT in general. Versatility doesn't mean single tool capable of everything, it means plenty of tools to choose from.

  • Ben Tremblay #

    Yeah, no chances for twitter to replace RSS. Twitter is a social network as you mentioned and there's no way it can replace RSS...two very different things. I think it's easy for people to confuse twitter/RSS because you can post your blog updates on twitter so it might seem like a rss feed, but that's just wrong. Twitter still give me the extra kick in the butt to read some posts... ;)

  • Rarst #

    @Ben It's also curious how some people say that posting blog updates to twitter is so terrible and should be avoided. Guess not everyone wants it to be RSS feed. :)

  • Brad Blogging.com - Personal Blog Tips And Blog Help #

    Doubtful. Twitter will never do such a thing. Its nice for small updates, but limits you to 140 characters. How can you convey your point in 140 characters???!?!?!?! :)

  • Rarst #

    @Brad Well, depends on amount of information in point and rudeness of words used (some slang can really compress emotional coloring). :)

  • Brad Blogging.com - Personal Blog Tips And Blog Help #

    lol. I see your point. A simple 4 letter word can convey multitudes of meanings. :D

  • Rarst #

    @Brad Yep, twitter unsuitable for complex things doesn't mean there are no other uses for it. :)

  • The Net of Inter #

    I COMPLETELY agree...haven't jumped on the bandwagon yet....i'm resisting it even though i see it everywhere. by the by...i love the statement theme.

  • Rarst #

    @Jeff Well, Twitter IS something worth trying probably. But it's not an ultimate solution to anything. I react badly to fanboy behaviour and Twitter has lots of that. Thanks, I tweak it all the time and more tweaks are coming so it's somewhat different form original Statement already. :)