Trying too hard to merge content May21 '07

My base page (which now no longer exists) changed again, although my satisfaction level is still very low. I can't seem to find the right combination of content and design that truly makes the concept work.

As I continue to use external applications to handle my content, such as Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, etc - I am constantly looking for better ways to aggregate all of that content onto my main page. I'm beginning to think it's a futile effort.

My goal is to efficiently display all of my content onto one page - no matter what application it's coming from.

The problem is that applications that don't allow an API require the use of inline JavaScript "widgets," which are not the most reliable way to display content. And the more external server calls you have floating all over the page - the slower the page loads, and really hampers the user experience.

Here's what I'm starting to think:

• "Blogs," as we know them, are no longer "one domain experiences." People today blog all over the place. They use Flickr to blog photos; they use Twitter to blog quick thoughts; they use Tumblr for just about anything. The point is - a user's content no longer resides under one roof. Rather, it's spread out all over the web.

Yet "content applications," such as MySpace, tend to push the idea that everything can still reside in one spot, ie: a user's "home page." Try to load a typical MySpace home page, and see how long it takes for everything to appear. You could read a book in that time.

Merging content to a single web page is no longer ideal.

I've mentioned before that people should merge feeds, not blogs. RSS feeds, after all, were built with the intent to aggregate lots of external data. They are the most efficient tool, to date, that can merge data together.

• Merging content is not the author's job (the person who is blogging all over the web), but rather the end-user's job. So what if Joe Blog has ten different blogs, on ten different domains? Is it really his responsibility to aggregate that data for the end-user? Or is it the user's job to become more efficient and use technology like RSS to better follow Joe Blog's content?
• Domains should stay relative to the domain. In other words, the "Flickr community" is all about Flickr photos. You don't see Flickr embedding user's Twitter posts onto the site.

A possible solution

A possible solution that I've come to realize through writing this post, is that I am trying too hard to achieve something that's just not needed. The end-user's of my main blog site don't care to see ten different forms of content on the front page. They don't care that I blog at Twitter, and I blog at Flickr, and Tumblr, etc. If they did, they'd go to those specific domains, or they'd subscribe to an RSS feed from those domains, so they can keep track of it in their own way.

I'm trying too hard for something that, in the end, is not even effective or desirable.

The idea is to keep each application separate. Even more specifically - keep each application's purpose separate. The purpose of this site is my main blog entries, not my Twitter status, or my Flickr photos. Sure, it's nice to include a little "badge" of my Flickr photos, but that's really doing nothing in the end, except slowing the page load.

If people want to follow my Flickr photos - they can go to my Flickr page, and either bookmark that page, or subscribe to the RSS feed.

An application is only useful unto itself.

Categories: Content , RSS

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