You all know that I’m a huge fan of aideRSS and have been using it religiously since I found it. Today, no kidding, they’ve announced their Firefox extension for Google Reader that allows you to filter your posts with PostRank right there in GoogleReader!
Although you can consume any AideRSS PostRank enhanced feed in your RSS reader of choice, there is administrative burden maintaining your feeds outside of where you consume them. We wanted to provide a superior user experience that didn’t require leaving GoogleReader to manage the filtering of your RSS feeds.The GoogleReader Firefox extension is the latest AideRSS weapon to fight information overload. By enhancing RSS feeds with PostRank and other social statistics, we believe we’re providing simply the best RSS reader experience possible. Source: Announcing the GoogleReader Firefox Extension - AideRSS Blog
One the new aideRSS - Google Reader site you can check out a video showing how it works and request an invite into the private beta. Here is the video so you can see what I mean without leaving here:




I was in the closed beta, but honestly, I couldn’t get the extension to install. It wasn’t their fault, I had a messed up Firefox profile. I feel like I missed out on the fun in a huge way. On RWW Marshall (remember he subs to over 1000 feeds) gives a great review:
AideRSS can filter almost any RSS feed, including tag and search feeds. Popularity, as expressed by explicit attention gestures like AideRSS indexes, may not be the perfect determination of quality - but it’s not a bad start at all. AideRSS is a great little tool and we expect that many Google Reader users will find this new extension very useful.
Also waxing poetic about it is Jim Murphy … from all that I’ve seen yeah I’m going to be bugging Jeff for a new invite.
Now I just have to get Nick working on the FeedDemon version…
Enough of product review time to think about what this means for folks who use RSS–or should but don’t currently. One of the biggest issues people have with RSS, I’ve found and know, is that trying to cast a wide is the best way to find and learn cool new stuff, the problem is that this means subscribing to a lot of feeds. A lot of feeds (I’m talking the several 100s to thousands here) means that your wheat to chaff ratio tips way into the chaff side.
AideRSS has certainly helped me get a sense of what’s hot. If I’m pressed, as you know, I’ll hit those feeds first. I’ve also started moving feeds around so I can read a few “must read” feeds. But … this also means that I’ve had to export my feeds, push to aideRSS and get a new one back. Using this filtering technology you can take a quick skim through your feeds, even if you haven’t organized them too well, and get the “good stuff” then if you want to read the rest, open the firehose.
This, I think, is what RSS needs to grow into the mainstream–the ability to just get a trickle when you want versus a deluge. One of the main complaints about meme and aggregator sites is the perception of bias, being in a bubble, etc. When you can’t dynamically expand your frame of reference, of course you’ll just get the same information and opinions. The method of putting a filter on your own personal news stream is what is key here. What’s the best in sports, politics, etc … according to the sources you already follow. This model, I think, is what people will really latch onto and I’m glad aideRSS is doing it. Which makes it easier to subscribe to new feeds I’m finding in Toluu!
Image credits aideRSS

Tags: aideRSS, Google Reader, information management, RSSShare This
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