Geoff Coupe's Blog

Reflections on life at “De Witte Wand”…

I’m Clearly Missing Something…

I don’t understand what all the fuss is about over news aggregator services, such as the (now-defunct) Google Reader.

For years now, I’ve simply used the “Feeds” feature in my Internet Explorer to aggregate my own personalised collection of web sites that I’m interested in. I simply don’t see the need to register with an external news aggregator service (such as Feedly) to get the same information as I can get directly in my web browser. I’m getting a little fed up with having to hand details of my interests to Google and Feedly so they can monetise me.

There must be some other reason why people do this that I’m simply not seeing. Isn’t there? If it’s simply that they can access a news aggregator service that is synchronised across a number of devices, then that’s not sufficient reason for me personally to sign up to such a service.

I’ll just carry on with the feeds in my Internet Explorer. I will supplement that with a standalone feed reader on my Tablet. Veen Feed Reader looks to be the best of the bunch in the Windows Store for my purposes.

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6 responses to “I’m Clearly Missing Something…”

  1. Arunas Avatar
    Arunas

    Synchronising across different devices is the main feature why I used Google Reader and now use Feedly. I read my feeds on a Windows 8 tablet, iPhone, and occasionally on a desktop PC. This would never work without sync.

    Reply
    1. Geoff Coupe Avatar
      Geoff Coupe

      Agreed, but sync can be done in other ways. Via my Microsoft account or SkyDrive for example. I note that now my IE links are synchronised across my devices. It’s a pity that Microsoft didn’t think to extend that to my feeds.

      Reply
  2. jlbeeken Avatar
    jlbeeken

    I think what you might be missing is that Internet Explorer is not exactly a popular browser.

    Firefox has a simple RSS add-on called Sage but hey, the Google Reader interface was also easy to use.

    You, I receive by email. Might as well, Everyone else talking to me goes there.

    Reply
    1. Geoff Coupe Avatar
      Geoff Coupe

      I could care less about popularity, it works for me, always has done. And the touch-based version of IE11 is giving me no reason to think of changing…

      Here in the EU, when you first fire up a new PC with Windows, you get asked which browser you want to install. The EU forced Microsoft to include this (funny that they didn’t do the same to Apple…). I still go for IE, every time.

      Reply
      1. jlbeeken Avatar
        jlbeeken

        Sorry. I thought you were asking about other people.

        Reply
        1. Geoff Coupe Avatar
          Geoff Coupe

          Gotcha. Although I’m surprised that not all browsers apparently support RSS feeds natively. BTW – I liked your post on scanning old photos. I forwarded it on to a friend who is about to embark on scanning her archive and suggested that it was best practice.

          Reply

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