Full text feeds pay off for this blogger

December 8, 2006 By

I love Amit Agarwal’s analysis on the full-text vs. partial text debate. I HATE partial text feeds. I am subscribing to a few now (Dan Farber, for instance) but I find I link to them far less often than people who give me full text feeds. What does that do? Well, read Amit’s analysis. And, yes, I did “steal” Amit’s content and put it on my link blog.

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  • http://www.bynkii.com/ John C. Welch

    dude, that’s not a link blog, that’s a feedblog. If it were a link blog, I’d be able to scan the link without hitting the more button forever. Screw that.

    You want a great implementation of a Linkblog?

    http://macsurfer.com/

    Much more efficient as a link blog.

  • http://www.bynkii.com/ John C. Welch

    dude, that’s not a link blog, that’s a feedblog. If it were a link blog, I’d be able to scan the link without hitting the more button forever. Screw that.

    You want a great implementation of a Linkblog?

    http://macsurfer.com/

    Much more efficient as a link blog.

  • http://geoffreyzheng.wordpress.com/ geoffreyzheng

    Your own feed is partial, at least in Bloglines. Am I missing something here?

  • incomplete

    A partial feed is like a good headline. It should tell you enough to entertain and make you want more. What’s wrong with it? It’s a good compromise. You get notification of content and the people get paid.

  • http://geoffreyzheng.wordpress.com/ geoffreyzheng

    Your own feed is partial, at least in Bloglines. Am I missing something here?

  • incomplete

    A partial feed is like a good headline. It should tell you enough to entertain and make you want more. What’s wrong with it? It’s a good compromise. You get notification of content and the people get paid.

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  • http://mymindyourmonitor.blogspot.com/ Derek

    I find it humorous that someone that “HATES” partial text feeds, is one of the few(must be because it’s Scoble) that I always have to click to get the rest of the story.

  • http://mymindyourmonitor.blogspot.com Derek

    I find it humorous that someone that “HATES” partial text feeds, is one of the few(must be because it’s Scoble) that I always have to click to get the rest of the story.

  • http://www.alijahg34msn.com/ Alijah Green

    WHY DO SOME FEED READERS IMPORT PARTICAL TEXT INSTEAD OF FULL TEXT. I HAVE NOTICED THIS FOR QUITE SOME TIME. PLUS COULD YOU TELL US AGAIN WHY YOU LIKE GOOGLE READER OVER LIVE.COM. PLEASE THAT WOULD BE A GREAT CONVERSATION TO START. SORT OF LIKE WHAT YOU DID WITH THE SEARCH ENGINES

  • http://www.alijahg34msn.com Alijah Green

    WHY DO SOME FEED READERS IMPORT PARTICAL TEXT INSTEAD OF FULL TEXT. I HAVE NOTICED THIS FOR QUITE SOME TIME. PLUS COULD YOU TELL US AGAIN WHY YOU LIKE GOOGLE READER OVER LIVE.COM. PLEASE THAT WOULD BE A GREAT CONVERSATION TO START. SORT OF LIKE WHAT YOU DID WITH THE SEARCH ENGINES

  • Gary

    I agree, Robert. Now, fix your feed. ;)

  • Gary

    I agree, Robert. Now, fix your feed. ;)

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ Robert Scoble

    Gary: the feed at http://scobleizer.com/feed/ is a full text feed. At least it’s full text in Google Reader. Not sure why other readers aren’t showing full text.

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ Robert Scoble

    Gary: the feed at http://scobleizer.com/feed/ is a full text feed. At least it’s full text in Google Reader. Not sure why other readers aren’t showing full text.

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ Robert Scoble

    Incomplete: >What’s wrong with it?

    It wastes my time.

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ Robert Scoble

    Incomplete: >What’s wrong with it?

    It wastes my time.

  • Jason

    I agree with you Robert, and so I opened this post on your website after reading it in my aggregator :-)

  • Jason

    I agree with you Robert, and so I opened this post on your website after reading it in my aggregator :-)

  • http://geoffreyzheng.wordpress.com/ geoffreyzheng

    http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/feed/rss/ is partial, to which is what I used to subscribe. There’s a wordpress.com setting in Options – Reading for full/partial feed.

  • http://geoffreyzheng.wordpress.com/ geoffreyzheng

    http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/feed/rss/ is partial, to which is what I used to subscribe. There’s a wordpress.com setting in Options – Reading for full/partial feed.

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  • incomplete

    > It wastes my time.

    A page display takes 200-500 msecs, you must be very busy. And while that’s loading you scan to the next entry to see if it’s worth your time.

  • incomplete

    > It wastes my time.

    A page display takes 200-500 msecs, you must be very busy. And while that’s loading you scan to the next entry to see if it’s worth your time.

  • http://sleepyblogger.com/ Robyn Tippins

    Robert your feed is full in Google reader for me as well. I also checked it in my backup, bloglines, and it’s full text there for me as well.

    Perhaps someone has their options set up incorrectly in bloglines? I hesitate to say that as I may get flamed, but I’ve made that mistake before.

  • http://sleepyblogger.com Robyn Tippins

    Robert your feed is full in Google reader for me as well. I also checked it in my backup, bloglines, and it’s full text there for me as well.

    Perhaps someone has their options set up incorrectly in bloglines? I hesitate to say that as I may get flamed, but I’ve made that mistake before.

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ Robert Scoble

    Robyn: I don’t know. I don’t know how people got to that URL.

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ Robert Scoble

    Robyn: I don’t know. I don’t know how people got to that URL.

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ Robert Scoble

    incomplete: most pages take seconds to load. But, yes, that wastes my time. Especially when I’m looking at 350 feeds and thousands of items every day. Most of the time there’s someone else who gives me full text that I’d rather link to.

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ Robert Scoble

    incomplete: most pages take seconds to load. But, yes, that wastes my time. Especially when I’m looking at 350 feeds and thousands of items every day. Most of the time there’s someone else who gives me full text that I’d rather link to.

  • http://takemorephotos.com/ zach

    I think that full feeds are really important. I don’t come back to websites that don’t have a feed, and I hardly ever read partial feeds. I often click through on the full feeds.

    And really, how hard is it to put an ad in a feed??

    Zach
    take more photos

  • http://takemorephotos.com zach

    I think that full feeds are really important. I don’t come back to websites that don’t have a feed, and I hardly ever read partial feeds. I often click through on the full feeds.

    And really, how hard is it to put an ad in a feed??

    Zach
    take more photos

  • http://www.startechglobal.com/ David Scott Lewis

    Couldn’t agree more. I’m reluctant to subscribe to partial text feeds; they’re a pain-in-the-@$$.

    Frankly, I’m not too thrilled with short postings, either. Personal preference. I’d rather get fewer, but longer postings: More analysis, less background noise. (Honestly, I really don’t care if a blogger is taking a trip to visit their mother — or even if they’ll be too busy to post over the next several days. Make a brief annotation to the final post prior to going on a trip rather than making a separate post that a trip is pending.)

  • http://www.startechglobal.com David Scott Lewis

    Couldn’t agree more. I’m reluctant to subscribe to partial text feeds; they’re a pain-in-the-@$$.

    Frankly, I’m not too thrilled with short postings, either. Personal preference. I’d rather get fewer, but longer postings: More analysis, less background noise. (Honestly, I really don’t care if a blogger is taking a trip to visit their mother — or even if they’ll be too busy to post over the next several days. Make a brief annotation to the final post prior to going on a trip rather than making a separate post that a trip is pending.)

  • http://www.JameHealy.com/ Jame

    Robert… what do you think of full postings for commercial feeds (like newspapers, etc.). Frankly it drives me nuts to only get the first two sentences (see The Economist, or The New York Times…). I’d prefer to pay for the subscription and get an authenticated feed…

  • http://www.JameHealy.com Jame

    Robert… what do you think of full postings for commercial feeds (like newspapers, etc.). Frankly it drives me nuts to only get the first two sentences (see The Economist, or The New York Times…). I’d prefer to pay for the subscription and get an authenticated feed…

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ Robert Scoble

    Jame: I so wish that were a choice that would be possible!

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ Robert Scoble

    Jame: I so wish that were a choice that would be possible!

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  • http://www.mikeysgblog.com/ Michael Gannotti

    Not that anyone read the feeds from my blog but after reading one of your rants on hating partial text feeds (I was guilty as charged putting partial feeds to drive additional traffic to my own little blog) I enabled full text so that those who do subscribe to my RSS don’t have have to go to the site but can consume what I put online from their RSS viewr of choice….. nof course hopefully what they consume wont give them an upset stomach. ;-)

  • http://www.mikeysgblog.com Michael Gannotti

    Not that anyone read the feeds from my blog but after reading one of your rants on hating partial text feeds (I was guilty as charged putting partial feeds to drive additional traffic to my own little blog) I enabled full text so that those who do subscribe to my RSS don’t have have to go to the site but can consume what I put online from their RSS viewr of choice….. nof course hopefully what they consume wont give them an upset stomach. ;-)

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  • http://mndoci.com/ Deepak

    Count me in the crowd that dislikes partial feeds. Perhaps more people should offer people both options.

    I also get the full feeds for this blog in every feed reader I have used (nowadays Google Reader)

  • http://mndoci.com Deepak

    Count me in the crowd that dislikes partial feeds. Perhaps more people should offer people both options.

    I also get the full feeds for this blog in every feed reader I have used (nowadays Google Reader)

  • http://www.crazysalsadancer.com/ Paul Mendoza

    Is there any reason Robert that you don’t include ads on your feeds?

  • http://www.crazysalsadancer.com/ Paul Mendoza

    Is there any reason Robert that you don’t include ads on your feeds?

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  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ Robert Scoble

    Paul: no reason, it’s just I’m not driven by the money that I could make and I’d rather you get just me on my personal blog.

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ Robert Scoble

    Paul: no reason, it’s just I’m not driven by the money that I could make and I’d rather you get just me on my personal blog.

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