Bits from my RSS Reader
Yeah, I am back in full-blown RSS addiction. Sorry Microsoft, your new SaaS site sucks. I used to say that marketers that don’t put RSS feeds should be fired. Now it’s even worse. You want into my daily reading behavior? You gotta provide an RSS feed. With an icon. With automatic subscription for the popular readers. Hint, if Google Reader can’t see a feed there isn’t one. Oh, yeah, I’m not even gonna link to your new site. I hate sites that try to force me to come to them.
In other news from my feeds: Dennis Howlett reports that Sam Sethi rises from the dead. Turns out Sam got two sponsors and landed on his feet. I knew he would. Don’t bet against people who have relationships.
Anyway, I’m off to bed. My feed reading is done and my link blog is up to date.
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December 20th, 2006 at 3:19 am
I agree here… even I believe on this
December 20th, 2006 at 5:41 am
Okay I give up (I have been living out in the woods so long I can no longer keep up with all the acronyms)
What’s the SaaS site? (only thing I came up with is Software as a Service http://msdn.microsoft.com/architecture/saas/
December 20th, 2006 at 5:51 am
[b]kkkkkkkkkkkk…!!!
think so but way z diffnt..!!
December 20th, 2006 at 6:28 am
Wow, if Google reader can’t find a feed there isn’t one. Robert, you jump from one feed reader to a next based on whatever is “hot” and current its pretty funny. Not only that but you seem to have an axe to grind ever since you left MS. Sometimes I feel you have become part of the anti-M$ crowd now
December 20th, 2006 at 6:36 am
i wonder how long it will be before someone creates a blog with no web front end at all, and only an RSS interface.
December 20th, 2006 at 6:49 am
Thanks for Information
December 20th, 2006 at 6:50 am
Great Job
December 20th, 2006 at 6:59 am
Good lord Robert…I had 55 new items from your link blog to read this morning! No wonder you’re posting at almost 3am. :)
Jon, I have a hard time seeing Robert jumping ship from Google Reader, the shared items alone makes it a keeper IMHO. Though Jaiku (http://www.jaiku.com/) looks interesting in that regard. The only thing missing from Google Reader’s shared items is a way to add a post that’s NOT on an RSS feed….
December 20th, 2006 at 7:36 am
hi robert,
in my latest avatar you will find a good blog on how i beat bill gates at his own game
its there on 2 websites 1 is blogger- http://beatingbillgates.blogspot.com/
and another at
http://vm.arunbalaji.com- i will upload it before u are online
bye
arun balaji
December 20th, 2006 at 7:38 am
RSS - Start with your favorite news and blogs, mix in Digg and Del.icio.us, and you’ll never read the internet the old fashioned way again!
December 20th, 2006 at 9:01 am
arun balaji: Its pink
December 20th, 2006 at 10:06 am
Its not up to date, my feed is missing ;-)
December 20th, 2006 at 10:41 am
2:50 AM?? You really should give us a day in the life kind of thing with your schedule. How much caffeine does it take to keep posting at 3:00 am?
December 20th, 2006 at 10:43 am
Jonathan, NewsGator works the same way Google Reader does. So does IE7, by the way.
As for being “anti-Microsoft,” well, I am seeing more of the world lately than just getting Microsoft’s view on everything. And, yeah, that probably is seeping into my writing.
Albert: I subscribe to your feed, but out of the 500 to 1,000 items, only 50 to 100 get on my link blog.
December 20th, 2006 at 10:44 am
Am I the only one seeing that you are posting a bit arrogantly every passing day, especially against microsoft. Who the hell are you to ask for someone to fire someone just coz you are lazy to add a feed.
December 20th, 2006 at 10:44 am
Chuck: I love what I do.
December 20th, 2006 at 10:45 am
Yeah, well can someone help me set up RSS on my site? Will it work for a site like mine? I got a pretty collection of pics that is ever growing…but I am not sure if RSS would work for me. If Scoble doesn’t like to visit sites, why would an ordinary internet luser…i meant an internet lesser mortal user like me would wanna do? I mean seriously…help someone.
December 20th, 2006 at 10:46 am
forgot to add, why dont I see any post from you criticising your pet companies - apple and google. Does apple know what rss is?? and does google know what a blog is?? (heck google does not even allow you to comment in their blog)
December 20th, 2006 at 10:46 am
Anand: you might not have been a reader for long here. Back when I worked at Microsoft I famously told a marketer at Microsoft on my blog that he should be fired for not having an RSS feed.
If you work at a tech company that makes a product (Windows Vista) that comes with two RSS aggregators built in (one in sidebar, one in IE7) and you aren’t making RSS feeds sounds like you aren’t supporting your own company’s strategy.
But maybe it’s just me.
Back to the argument: I’ve always been posting a bit arrogantly. What took you so long to notice?
The ACT of blogging is arrogant.
December 20th, 2006 at 10:47 am
Anand: you are not a very competent reader if you haven’t seen a post here in the past week criticizing both Apple and Google.
I really want smart readers here. It sounds like you aren’t very smart. I think you’d be much happier reading Digg.
December 20th, 2006 at 10:48 am
Umi: all blogging tools build RSS feeds automatically.
So, start a blog alongside your site. Link it into your site. Link into the RSS feed your blog creates. Whenever you post new stuff, link to it on your blog. Voila! An RSS feed.
December 20th, 2006 at 10:52 am
Whether you accept it or not robert you have been too critical about microsoft of late. And yes I have been a reader of your blogs only for the past 8-9months.Just wanted to point out. I have better places to get good news rather than from your blog..
PS: you are ready to lose one arrogant reader from your blog. I am sure microsoft does not care whether you add them to your reader or not :)
December 20th, 2006 at 10:53 am
I don’t thing that Robert is anti-microsoft I think he is following the movers and the shakers. Google and all the upstarts he features are a lot more interesting than a company that cant get an OS out even close to on time. Or it could be a ploy to get microsoft to get their A__ in gear.
PS. That was a Sassy sounding post. (^.^)
December 20th, 2006 at 11:09 am
http://www.microsoft.com/saas is the site.
Anand: actually Microsoft DOES care about traffic — Bill Gates certainly does. He knows that it turns into business (MSN, er, Live, makes billions from advertising). Which is why this behavior is ironic. And the IE7 team cares about RSS. Which is why this behavior is ironic. Oh, and the Windows Live team cares about RSS. That’s how you’ll get stuff onto your Live.com page.
December 20th, 2006 at 11:10 am
Anand: I would hope you have better places to get news. I’m not a news blog. I recommend TechMeme. Or, maybe my Link blog.
December 20th, 2006 at 11:54 am
Oh my God! Scoble took my name!! Scoble you are God! Can you believe this guy, this guy answers rank outsiders like me!
December 20th, 2006 at 12:08 pm
Robert isn’t anti-Microsoft, nor is he pro-Apple.
He’s anti-stupid, and pro-smart.
The Apple fanboys will see him as anti-Apple, and the Microsoft fanboys will see him as anti-Microsoft.
besides, its his blog and he can say whatever the hell he wants to say.
December 20th, 2006 at 12:19 pm
I would have to agree w/ the others that have mentioned a growing aragonce in Robert’s writing. I have been reading this blog since before Channel 9 started and have noticed as soon as he leaves MS, his view is the most important.
Is MS SAAS product that important to you Robert that you need to read a feed about it? If it is, then you should probablly figure out how it is done, then just complaining and say people should lose their jobs.
December 20th, 2006 at 12:27 pm
You gotta provide an RSS feed. With an icon. With automatic subscription for the popular readers.
Right. I”m slowly catching up to RSS-fying content.
Feeds I can make using SQL and wrappers around content. How does one get the browser to display the icon and do the auto subscription bit?
December 20th, 2006 at 12:58 pm
Software as a Service MSDN site (the SaaS site that matters most, and actually makes sense to have an RSS feed since it has updated content)http://msdn.microsoft.com/architecture/saas/
does have an RSS feed.
As for the other SaaS site http://www.microsoft.com/saas, which you arrogantly said you weren’t going to link, why should it have an RSS feed? RSS feeds are for frequently changing content. I see nothing like that there. What exactly would be in RSS feeds for that site? It’s static content. So, what, you’d get an RSS feed for the day the site went live, then nothing afterward? (Since the content doesn’t change at all).
Oh, and “If Google Reader can’t find the feed, it doesn’t exist”? It’s sad that you now allow Google to dictate whatever you see. Google is the gatekeeper to any information that get’s into your head? Pathetic, to say the least.
December 20th, 2006 at 1:07 pm
“Robert isn’t anti-Microsoft, nor is he pro-Apple.”
Robert was never “pro-Apple”, though he has a tendency to hype their uneventful PR events.
But he now bashes Microsoft every chance he gets (this particular thread is a rant over nothing), in order to gain street cred in “The Valley”. That he refers to it as “The Valley” is indicative of the Kool-Aid he’s consumed. I lived in Mountain View for years, and neither I nor my neighbors refered to it a “The Valley”, a cultish title that makes it like the no place else matters. At the end of they day, much of what Robert gushes over is made by “The Valley” for “The Valley”. Those outside of “The Valley” cult don’t really give a damn.
December 20th, 2006 at 4:21 pm
Actually, I’ve hit three blogs this week wherein Google Reader couldn’t find the feed, but RSSOwl, Newsgator and even Blogroll.com could. Actually, Google found it, but claimed it wasn’t a feed. RSSOwl is very finicky about valid format in feeds, and it was fine with them.
December 20th, 2006 at 9:43 pm
Is this a case of seeing the world through RSS-tinted glasses? :-)
December 21st, 2006 at 11:19 am
>Robert was never “pro-Apple”, though he has a tendency to hype their uneventful PR events.
Actually, I was pro-Apple for years. Even was in an Apple advertisement (back in 1988 to 1994). Ask my former boss, Steve Sloan, about how pro-Apple I was back then.
This post is very consistent with things I wrote about Microsoft WHEN I worked for Microsoft. I’ve been an RSS advocate since at least 1993 (which was before I worked at Microsoft).
As for bashing Microsoft. I regularly did that when I worked there. I did it before I worked there (was even quoted in Time Magazine telling Bill Gates to split the company up). And I’ll do that after today too.
On the other hand, when Microsoft does stuff spectacular, I’ll note that too. For instance, do a Google search for “Demo of the Year.” You’ll find my post, made just a few weeks ago, about something Microsoft did. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Demo+of+the+Year&btnG=Google+Search
December 21st, 2006 at 11:21 am
Stephen: so that SAAS site is never going to change? Never going to be updated? Are you sure? Are you the guy who runs that site? How do you know that?
This is Microsoft’s main site on SAAS. You think Microsoft NEVER will have something new to say on this topic? That’s amazing. If that’s true it’s even worse than I thought originally. And people call me arrogant. Sounds like you’re even more arrogant than I am cause you say you know what Microsoft is going to do with this site in the future.
December 21st, 2006 at 5:50 pm
Regarding your bashing Microsoft when you worked there vs now. The difference is that when you worked there, your bashes carried some weight, as it was public constructive criticism designed to make your own company do better. But now that you don’t work there, your bashes come off as just another resentful anti-MS voice from Silcon Valley, pissed that a company outside of “The Valley” wields so much power.
Bottom line: Anti-MS posts are a dime a dozen, and 99% are lame. Yours stood out as having legitimacy *because* you worked there. They don’t have that legitimacy anymore. Your anti-MS bashes are no longer any more regarded than some yahoo’s on slashdot.
December 21st, 2006 at 6:12 pm
Stanley: good point. Truth is I shouldn’t have been more regarded than some yahoo on Slashdot anyway. Well, other than I had the courage (or stupidity) to sign my own name to them.
You forget: I still own stock in Microsoft. I don’t own stock in Google or Apple or any other Silicon Valley company.