Handling Feed Overload

I don't know about you but sometimes I look at my RSS reader and I say “damn, when did my feed list get so big?” To get around this I have developed a very simple technique. I delete all my feeds. Yup, all of them. Even Scoble's. Then, as I stare at my blank reader, I begin to think...who do I miss. Slowly but surely I begin to add feeds and then six months later I end up in exactly the same situation! So much for that bright idea. (In case you're wondering, of course Robert gets re-added!)

On a related note, have you noticed that so many RSS readers fail to include a “mark all as read” button. Notables here include Newsgator Online and the Google Reader. If I skip I day of reading feeds, I return to find 500+ unread items in my reader. That's usually when I make a fresh start. I am a fan of Dave Winer's River of News philosophy. I find it very intuitive. With that I have switched over to Newsfire on my PowerBook because it gives me everything I need. FeedDemon takes the same approach on Windows. I still keep a small subset of feeds on Bloglines for mobile reading.

Technorati Tags: Bloglines, FeedDemon, Google Reader, lifehacks, Newsfire, Newsgator