Posted on March 31, 2006 at 7:05 PM in thoughts
Note: The below is an archived entry from Earthling, formerly EarthLink's official blog. The blog itself has been decommissioned and is no longer updated, and comments are trackbacks are no longer accepted.
EarthLink's Director of Web Applications Gregg Hartling borrows Earthling to share some thoughts about RSS readers, inspired by today's TechCrunch article:
"I read through today's excellent TechCrunch review of web-based feed readers with great interest. I've been championing RSS at EarthLink for a while now, so it's a subject that's near and dear.
I was glad to see Frank Gruber start by explaining why he didn't include the traditional portals, like My Yahoo. Even though these sites have RSS capabilities, they're very different beasts. I like that he's focused on sites built specifically for the purpose of consuming news instead of the swiss army knives (like myEarthLink).
What I wasn't as excited to see, but I suppose is a necessary evil, is the comparison chart. A matrix of features and check marks is fine for getting a high level overview of the many alternatives available. But it shouldn't be the case that the one with the most notches in its belt is the best. (And to be fair, the TechCrunch review doesn't use that as its only criterion.)
We've been listening to customers in recent weeks, regular people not like me and my engineers, about what they want from online news. They don't know what RSS is. Or tagging (sorry Web 2.0). When asked if they want to "subscribe" to a "feed", they want to know if they have to pay, or give out their personal information, like with the magazines they get in the mail. These are the problems we want to solve so our applications can be friendly and fun to non-power users.
So when TechCrunch says Bloglines and Rojo are the best choices if you're looking for a feature-rich application, I ask whether a feature-rich application is desirable for the mainstream internet user. Can we present a simpler experience focused on just what they want: to see what's new in the world of stuff they're interested in?
Maybe there are some basic assumptions in news readers today that aren't requirements for people who aren't power users. I look at one row in particular in the TechCrunch matrix: Mark Feed Read/Unread. Every application reviewed has a check mark in that row. Even as a power user, I've always found the Read/Unread feature in news readers too closely mirrors my email application and is the source of a lot of information anxiety. A day away from my reader and I would have to spend time making sure the hundreds of items that had come in all reached a "Read" state. I began working for my news reader more than it worked for me. I don't cross off articles I read in the Los Angeles Times. Why should my news consumption be the same as my email?
If you know what an RSS feed is, you're in the minority of our users. We want to take a "less is more" approach, banking on the idea that getting into a feature matrix arms race isn't necessary to provide a delightful experience for the majority of our users, who don't know or care anything about "River of News" versus Outlook-style debates. They just want their news."
-Gregg Hartling