Rososo: Blog Subscriptions Made Simple

A few weeks ago I talked about Now Do This and the Single-Tasking Philosophy … a to-do list with the ultimate simplicity that I love.

This week the creators of Now Do This came out with a new web app that I also love for its simplicity: Rososo, an RSS reader for blog subscriptions that is unmatched in simplicity.

Rososo allows you to enter the blogs you’re interested in and easily see which blogs have been updated easily. What I like is the extremely simple interface. It’s reading philosophy is different than other RSS readers, so it might not be for everyone, but I like it and think it’s worth checking out.

I talked to one of the creators of Rososo, Jacob Lodwick, and asked him about the philosophy behind Rososo. His response:

“My email inbox is like a permanent snowfall, always accumulating. I can manage it, but why would I want a second inbox, in the form of a newsreader? This is the idea of Rososo: How can I follow my bookmarks without a feeling of obligation, of accumulation? Billy and I solved it in the simplest possible way. We present the user with her bookmarks, detecting the updated ones with RSS. But we don’t show the updates themselves. RSS means “Really Simple Syndication”, but we’re not syndicating anything — and the results are more peaceful.

As a bonus, you get to read your bookmarks in context. Compare an article on zenhabits.net or slashdot.org to a syndicated article from that site in a newsreader. You lose all the personality. The font, the layout, the whole mood of the site is lost. Rososo lets you read your bookmarks as the author intended.

We all need more simplicity in our lives. I find inspiration in everyday objects like vinyl records, paperclips, and houseplants. These things are what they are. Your plant doesn’t say “PLANT” on it, so why put a big logo on a website? When someone types rososo.com, they already know the site! We try to cut out everything that is not completely necessary. I think we were successful with NowDoThis, and I think Rososo is getting there, though we’re certainly open to suggestions from your readers, who are the most thoughtful I’ve encountered on the web.”

Check it out and let me know what you think!

New Post for Bloggers: How to Get Your Readers’ Attention

For the bloggers among you, I’ve written a new post at Write To Done that you might be interested in:

Anatomy of a Post: How to Get Blog Readers to Pay Attention

I hope you enjoy it! If you like the post, please bookmark it in Delicious or StumbleUpon, and consider subscribing!

Rososo: Blog Subscriptions Made Simple

A few weeks ago I talked about Now Do This and the Single-Tasking Philosophy … a to-do list with the ultimate simplicity that I love.

This week the creators of Now Do This came out with a new web app that I also love for its simplicity: Rososo, an RSS reader for blog subscriptions that is unmatched in simplicity.

I talked to one of the creators of Rososo, Jacob Lodwick, and asked him about the philosophy behind Rososo. His response:

“My email inbox is like a permanent snowfall, always accumulating. I can manage it, but why would I want a second inbox, in the form of a newsreader? This is the idea of Rososo: How can I follow my bookmarks without a feeling of obligation, of accumulation? Billy and I solved it in the simplest possible way. We present the user with her bookmarks, detecting the updated ones with RSS. But we don’t show the updates themselves. RSS means “Really Simple Syndication”, but we’re not syndicating anything — and the results are more peaceful.

As a bonus, you get to read your bookmarks in context. Compare an article on zenhabits.net or slashdot.org to a syndicated article from that site in a newsreader. You lose all the personality. The font, the layout, the whole mood of the site is lost. Rososo lets you read your bookmarks as the author intended.

We all need more simplicity in our lives. I find inspiration in everyday objects like vinyl records, paperclips, and houseplants. These things are what they are. Your plant doesn’t say “PLANT” on it, so why put a big logo on a website? When someone types rososo.com, they already know the site! We try to cut out everything that is not completely necessary. I think we were successful with NowDoThis, and I think Rososo is getting there, though we’re certainly open to suggestions from your readers, who are the most thoughtful I’ve encountered on the web.”

Check it out and let me know what you think!

New Post for Bloggers: How to Get Your Readers’ Attention

For the bloggers among you, I’ve written a new post at Write To Done that you might be interested in:

Anatomy of a Post: How to Get Blog Readers to Pay Attention

I hope you enjoy it! If you like the post, please bookmark it in Delicious or StumbleUpon, and consider subscribing!

Posted on 23 September 2008 in Simplicity, Technology |
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Comments (25)

"Motivate Thyself" Says:

September 23rd, 2008, 21:46 pm

Another great app to check out. Thanks for the heads up.

I generally like Google reader, mainly because it’s yet another online app that is neatly packaged with my gmail, docs, etc… But I will definitely give this one a look. I DO like the idea of the post being shown in it’s original form/font.

Kevin Says:

September 23rd, 2008, 22:16 pm

In my opinion, Rososo only works well when you have very few feeds that you read ones that don’t update that frequently. I subscribe to 60 feeds and ones like Engadget and TechCrunch update everyday like crazy so I would need more organizational tools like Google Reader provides.

Rososo definitely attracts a different type of audience but I think it might actually encourage users to read less feeds and only ones that are worth reading to dissolve some of the noise in life.

Daniel Richard Says:

September 23rd, 2008, 22:17 pm

Just tried this out. Looks simple. It’s not exactly an RSS reader, but it uses RSS to check out for the latest updates on the websites that we follow.

It links it back to the site’s main page, so you can view it in it’s full glory. :)

I should be giving this a thumbs up of new and simple web apps that helps.

Daniel

Fit Bottomed GIrl Says:

September 23rd, 2008, 22:40 pm

I’m a big fan of Google Reader, too. :) But this sounds cool, too!

Success Professor Says:

September 23rd, 2008, 22:48 pm

Thanks for the info Leo. I currently use Bloglines and subscribe to about 50 blogs. I too have the feeling that Rososo is best with fewer feeds. What do you think? How many feeds to you use with Rososo?

Also, for those Google Reader users, any thoughts on it in comparison to Bloglines? What are the pros and cons?

Tim Brownson Says:

September 23rd, 2008, 22:51 pm

I love Google reader I must say, but that’s not why I’m here.

I noticed that you read The Corrections, Leo. Well done on doing that and not slashing your wrists. A brilliantly written but ultimately depressing book that almost had me hurling myself off a cruise ship 3 or 4 years ago.

Garth Says:

September 24th, 2008, 1:18 am

Isn’t one of the main points/advantages of RSS readers is that they simplify and reduce websites to their core content, thereby making reading them more efficient? Ie. You can read many sites from one location, without having to load any of the fluff that surrounds the bit you’re interested in.

Rososo seems to be defiant of the very point of RSS…

Usman Says:

September 24th, 2008, 2:06 am

Great application. Just shows you what RSS is capable of.

Mohammed Says:

September 24th, 2008, 2:29 am

Well, my blog certainly is stale! I like Rososo so so simple.
Could do with a nice convenient “copy all from [name of old RSS reader]“

Chris - Zen to Fitness Says:

September 24th, 2008, 2:46 am

Just created an account I like this very much and it looks like a good alternative to Greader. Will give it a try for a while see how things pan out…. Thanks for the heads up

Leo Says:

September 24th, 2008, 2:46 am

@Mohammed - excellent idea. I hope the Rososo guys are listening.

@Garth - that’s what I thought too when I first checked it out, but after trying it out for a couple days I decided that either way works well, and I like Rososo for its simplicity. It’s worth testing out to see what works best for you.

I’m a big fan of Google Reader too, but I like that these guys took the traditional RSS reader and came at it with a fresh approach.

Ryan McLean Says:

September 24th, 2008, 5:04 am

I already have a great RSS reader that I use. However, I am very thankful for letting us know. Keep the simplicity coming

Glen Allsopp Says:

September 24th, 2008, 5:05 am

Seems like these guys are really on the ball with their simple creations, thanks for sharing this one Leo!

Cheers,
Glen

Alex Fayle | Someday Syndrome Says:

September 24th, 2008, 5:27 am

On your suggestion I started using NowDoThis (in combination with RememberTheMilk) and love it. I’ll check out Rososo, but I’ve found that the FireFox plugin Brief does a really good job for what I’m looking for.

Cheers,
Alex

Parag Garg Says:

September 24th, 2008, 9:50 am

Hi Leo,
This is not a comment related to this post. I Don’t know how to email you directly.
I have seen your posts mostly related to the lifestyle like yours. I will appreciate if you could post some perspective on lifestyle of people who work in office with lot of peer pressure, pressure from management and juggling between professional, family and personal life. How to make your dreams come true in such kind of environment.

* you could delete this post after reading it.

Regards,
Parag

J.D. Meier Says:

September 24th, 2008, 11:35 am

Feed reading is a great spot to improve effectiveness.

One thing that’s worked for me lately in Google Reader is adding two folder to the top:
1. MUST
2. SHOULD

I keep the MUST limited to 15 max. I keep a small set I can cycle through daily. The SHOULD is a select set of blogs I’d like to read.

I then have all the rest of my feeds under key topics — mind, body, writing … etc. But everyday, I can make a quick trip through my MUST feeds and optimize my time.

mjukr Says:

September 24th, 2008, 12:26 pm

One problem: mobile support. I do most of my rss reading on my phone (via Bloglines). Since this works by linking to the source site, doesn’t really work well.

But it is a very cool site that I would probably use were it not for my mobile usage!

William Mize Says:

September 24th, 2008, 13:31 pm

I tell ya, I love The Google Empire, especially GCal, but I was also an early adopter of Google Reader.
But, I’m down to *SIX FEEDS* now, and I think that Rososo will be perfect for me.

Simple Sapien Says:

September 24th, 2008, 13:49 pm

Thanks for the heads up, Leo. I am always interested in anything that simplifies things and cuts out the fluff. I may move over to Rososo soon, but right now I don’t have the time. I have way too many feeds in my Google Reader (I need to declutter that) and it will take some time to transer them.

I wonder where the future of RSS readers, email, inboxes, and any other online organization programs will be headed. Are there any programs that compile all of those into one nice package right now?

- Jack Rugile
Simple Sapien

Mike OD - IF life Says:

September 24th, 2008, 15:23 pm

I found this is also a cool app if you already have a blog:
http://www.springwidgets.com/express/getFeed/

I basically found it when I was doing a complete site redesign, and just put it up on my homepage with my favorite feeds. Now I just have to go to my own homepage and view my rss feeds on my own site, no other reader necessary (of course I try and keep the number of sites I RSS small for sanity’s sake).

Richard Says:

September 24th, 2008, 17:12 pm

I like it but I can’t figure out how to delete feeds I no longer want. Anybody know?

teacherninja Says:

September 25th, 2008, 11:43 am

@richard–Just click on the little “x” next to the “last update” line and it deletes the feed.

@Leo–Thanks for this, but I’m also unsure about how I would use it. I think I’ll keep my Google Reader for the essentials and try this with funs stuff, friends’ blogs, etc. One of the features I use in the Google Reader often is the “Share” tag so I can link to items on my own blog easily. This’ll be great as an “intro feed reader” to some friends who haven’t tried them yet.

Michael Michalowski Says:

September 28th, 2008, 6:51 am

I’ll try it out! Looks very simple, thats good - its my startpage now :) We’ll see if its good.

korinthe Says:

October 6th, 2008, 15:38 pm

Rososo’s javascript seems to be broken in Firefox 3 (Windows and Linux) — and yes I do have javascript enabled. I see four tabs across the top of the page, nothing else, and no amount of clicking will tell me “About Rososo”. It’s probably my configuration, but I’ve tried all the obvious cuplrits. Has anyone else tried it in FF3 and had it work?

panchitah Says:

October 11th, 2008, 19:51 pm

Love it! I agree that it would probably be of little use to someone who feeds from sites that are constantly being updated. But for me, its perfect. :)