This “Thing” for the 23 Mobile Things is “Keeping Up with RSS feeds.” If you are unfamiliar with RSS feeds, check out this post from THE DISH. THE DISH on RSS Feeds is one of the best descriptions that I have read.
Personally, I have not used RSS feeds much in the past. Most of the bloggers and other writers that I follow also cross post on Twitter. I see the titles of posts in passing and read further if interested. For years, Twitter was enough of an RSS reader of sorts for me. It led me to quick, meaningful posts by my peers. Now that my PLN is growing, I feel like I can’t keep up with some of the deeper posts that get lost in the Twitter stream. Since I’ve started blogging again myself, I wanted to spend more time connecting with my fellow bloggers directly. This led me to do research into different ways to get my blog updates.
Flipboard is very visual. I’ve used it in the past, but I feel like I miss content. Just this week, NBC just went to a visual format. Like my RSS feeds, I prefer reading news as text. I have stopped visiting NBC with their image-centeric interface. I know it appeals to many users, but I do not like an image-dominated format.
Zite
Zite is an app that leads to quite a bit of content, and personalizes a magazine based on my likes and reading habits. When I’m struggling to keep up with traditional news and people that I want to follow on Twitter or in blogs, this is another layer beyond that I haven’t found time for yet.
Feedspot
I have recently started using Feedspot. It puts all my RSS feeds in one location. Feedspot shows the number of posts not read each day. You can stay in the app to read articles, unless need to go to the blog itself. I’ve organized the feeds by topics: 23 things, a foundational group of blogs that I follow, and my friends. Also, since it’s not in my habits yet to check feedspot, it sends a daily email. It was a post on my Feedspot that led me to reply to Doug Johnson’s post
I am hoping that Feedspot will help me keep in touch with the many bloggers that I want to follow.