More and more, I find myself checking Twitter when I’m waiting at traffic lights, in line at the grocery store or killing time when a meeting begins five minutes late.
I realized that though Google Reader is technically just as accessible via my PDA, checking it while on-the-go is not my user habit. It feels cumbersome and too complicated (in depth?) for those quick on-the-go moments. I am not sure, however, whether this is a function of the interface or of the content, itself.
I wondered if others have the same user habit, so I threw out a tweet this morning asking:
mixtmedia: When you’re out & about, do you check your RSS reader or Twitter more regularly? Is it a function of the interface or the content? - Twitter content is the mobile news of preference; RSS requires more time, focus and pixels
- iPhone and other mobile apps make Twitter an easier on-the-go resource than RSS readers
Thanks Twitter friends (below) for your responses!
guyma: @mixtmediadepends on situation – if waiting for something or someone, I’ll pull out iPhone to check RSS or Twitter. Helps me stay aware.
biznickman: @mixtmediaI check my Twitter when I’m out … not my RSS feed since it’s unreadble on my phone and I can’t save pages I liked 
mrscarpediem: @mixtmedia– I check more when I’m out. It’s an app on my iPhone so it gives me something to do standing in lines, etc. 🙂 
gregcangialosi: @mixtmediaI definitely check twitter more often on the go using Twitterific, over my RSS. Its quicker, easier, and often interesting 🙂
girluninterrupt: @mixtmediaI check Twitter, Brightkite, loopt and Facebook constantly. Thanks to iPhone apps!
ericaholt: @mixtmediaOn the go? I check Twitter more often from my smartphone than G Reader, which I mostly read when I’ve got more than a minute
EndTheRoboCalls: @mixtmediaI seem to spend more time on Twitter these days. It is substituting for RSS readers…. without me realizing it.
Marc_Meyer: @mixtmediaits more a function of the moment and the opprtunity.. rss when its major downtime versus twitter on the go
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Twitter is a social networking tool while an RSS feed is typically more of a business networking tool, where you subscribe to a item of interest. What I think keeps people coming back to Twitter is the buzz from a large group of people that are connected in some way.
Maxine,
I agree that RSS requires more focus – I do usually check Twitter first to see if there are other interesting things going on there – Amanda McPherson from the Linux Foundation had an interesting point that Twitter has become (for a lot of us) a kind of ‘personal zeitgeist’ – something we use to keep track of the pulse of things we are interested in.
I do try to find time to pull the RSS feeds as well though – mainly for ‘background’ and as a supplement to what my network on Twitter comes up with. Additionally, I tend to find a lot of my interesting ‘deep thought’ material via my RSS reader.
Great post as always!
When I’m out, I absolutely check my Twitter stream a LOT more than my RSS reader. This is primarily for two reasons:
1. The Twitter mobile interface (no matter what app you use) is a lot more conducive to the mobile environment than any RSS reader. The size of the screen doesn’t lend itself as well to the longer stories/blog posts that I want to read in my RSS feed as it does to 140 character tweets.
2. When I’m out, I’m at a traffic light, or in line, or killing five minutes while my wife tries something on. That’s enough time to scroll through my Twitter stream, maybe send a quick @ reply or DM, and if the light changes, I just go – I don’t feel like I have to pick it back up where I left off. With an RSS feed, I’d want to set aside a little bit longer time to read the post/article, and it’s not as easy on a phone to just share it with others, etc. Twitter on the go is an excellent time killer and does so in 15 seconds or five minutes – there’s no minimum.
Weeks late. But to answer your question, I pipe a set of Twitter feeds into my Google Reader…so both?
@Maxine – While Twitter isn’t completely replacing my RSS feeds, my attention has definitely shifted to Twitter as a shared feed reader – I still have my regular daily reads, but I spend less time in NewsGator than I used to. What’s great about reading posts that are being Retweeted in real time is that you get to jump into the convo as it’s happening. Not to mention that it’s much more beneficial to read what power players are reading. I have a list of about 100 truly influential people that I follow as a group. The richness of the information you get from the conversations that those people start is WAY better than anything I’d find on my own by sifting through RSS. But you already knew that…or you wouldn’t have asked the question in this post. For the people who are following influencers…Twitter is definitely shifting to an RSS reader of incredible value.
I dont think so!