Twitter cannot replace Google Reader

RSS Reader

Someone on Twitter commented to my tweet, in a tone ‘RSS readers are outdated and twitter is the new RSS reader’.

As all might not agree, RSS reader is equal to Google Reader.I have tried most of the RSS readers in the market, but nothing comes close to Google Reader. I can access it from my phone or on desktop (or laptop or netbook).

Twitter cannot replace Google Reader for many reasons:
99% of time, I access twitter from my mobile. I rarely use Twitter on a PC. 3G speed is not great enough to open all the links given on twitter. Google reader is faster even in 3G network compared to links opening up from Twitter.

Twitter is like sitting on a time bomb. If you do not check twitter every hour or two, the tweets are outdated. Google reader grabs all my interesting websites and manages them like ‘solid reads’. Most of the feeds open completely within Google Reader, which will never happen with Twitter.

Twitter is like ‘open chat line’. Twitter is not just to read feeds from news channels. I use it for fun, to communicate with like-minded people, to make fun. Google Reader is serious business. All the topics that interest me can be arranged in folders and can be read very fast.

There are only 140 characters in Twitter. Google Reader gives a good glimpse of the article, even when the websites do not allow complete feed. One cannot search similar sites on twitter. Google reader does that job very efficiently.

Twitter is to share my mini-views, share interesting stories I read on web, share Google reader feeds, follow people whose thoughts I find interesting. I use Twitter to advertise my blogs, retweet interesting lines and web links.

No doubt, Twitter has provided various interesting websites and blogs. Now all those are sitting in my Google Reader.

Twitter is complementary to Google Reader, not a replacement.