Since getting hooked on TweetDeck over the summer,it has become an indispensable part of my “infocentre”. In my TweetDeck setup I have a column just for these “news” tweets, just for info streams from posts as Mark describes:
The interesting thing is if you follow enough bloggers on Twitter using an auto-feed service, your Twitter stream starts to look lot like a streaming RSS reader with new posts popping up on a regular basis. Getting notifications about new blog posts is a useful alternative to your RSS reader because blog posts come to you dynamically as opposed to you having to shift through them. In some respects, it’s a way to follow the blog posts of a small group of people, while keeping your RSS reader for a more extensive collection of RSS feeds.
link: Using Twitter as an RSS Reader | Twitterrati
Which started to bring some parts into focus for what could be a very cool addition to TweetDeck: a light RSS reader like Snack.
I know, I know feature bloat. It isn’t what TweetDeck was intended for, but maybe it should be now. How cool would it be to have a few feeds scroll down in the same place as you are reading tweets? How about being able to tweet a headline too? Jump to your browser and then blog it?
This is how the our infostreaming worlds are combining. What we read, how we share, what we absorb is focusing around the attention we want to give it.
I don’t see apps like Snackr or TweetDeck completely replacing something like NetNewsWire, personally I need a much large pool of information to draw from than I’d like to try to absorb in something like TweetDeck, however it’s like the news ticker or headline news. Short bits that you skim and then drill down to details when needed.
Another time when I wish I could code…
Tris Hussey is a writer, teacher, blogger, and speaker on all facets of Internet life, WordPress, and social media. If you are interested in having Tris speak, teach, lead a workshop or consult for you, feel free to email tris [at] trishussey [dot] com.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Tris,
Glad to see someone else see Twitters as an RSS client.
Mark
Mark Evans´s last blog post..Twitter Revenue Just a Matter of Time
excellent point Tris – i would go one step further and see how we could turn twitter into a social news service a la Digg. Twigg anyone?
http://bloggingmebloggingyou.wordpress.com/2008/07/30/twigg-the-next-big-thing-in-search/
ed
Not a bad idea… I’m not to familiar with netnewswire?
Miguel Wickert´s last blog post..Pimp Your Blogging Experience With Thesis
Couldn’t you use something like Twitter Feed to post the RSS feeds of your favorite blogs to a new Twitter account and follow that in a separate group?
Jake Stride´s last blog post..Is Linked In starting to make more sense to the UK market?
@Mark, what can I say, great minds think a like…
@Ed I like that idea. The biggest thing is that filter mechanism. I want to be able to find and pull things that I might not have otherwise.
@Miguel NetNewsWire is the RSS reader for the Mac
@Jake, you’re right I could but I’m talking like 20 feeds, so I’d have to meta those then pass through. Not impossible, but time consuming.
Just started using TweetDeck this morning, and it’s already quickly becoming VERY handy. A great way to sort organize and utilize twitter in a much more effective manner. Still not sure if i’m ready to cash it in as an RSS reader quite yet, but I see your point of how/why it could be done. For RSS, I’m still in love with Snackr.
DT´s last blog post..Free to Play Cross Fire places CounterStrike in the Cross hairs
DT Snackr is great (I having it running right now) I’m looking at this from an infostream dashboard idea. Not for all feeds, just a few.
Interesting article and got me thinking, so I gave it a try – here’s a hastily written how-to on how I did it:
http://davestevens.co.uk/blog/2008/12/04/using-tweetdeck-as-an-rss-reader/
Probably tidy it up a bit when I am not dashing it off in my lunch break!
Dave Stevens´s last blog post..Using Tweetdeck as an RSS Reader
Dave I’m going to try this out. I think you’re onto something.