Thoughts on Kinja

Posted Apr 1st 2004 1:51PM by Greg Scher

Like the rest of the blog world that has an interest in what Nick D. is going to spew next, I wandered over to Kinja.com to check out the launch of the beta site. My initial thought was that it has a nice clean looking design, a la Kottke...I didn't feel Plastic when I looked at it, sorry J. but thats just my opnion. So, I signed myself up, imported my feed list and away I went.

I hate to say it…well… I don't really hate to say it…more like…I have to say it. I was thoroughly unimpressed. So what am I getting from Kinja that I can't get elsewhere? One more place that I have to import all my feeds to? Fine. What else?

Ok, so they aggregate feeds that they themselves have categorized into digests. Ok…cool. But that's it. Do they have feeds for them? Errr…Nope. Why? More then likely it's because I have to go to the site and see advertising mixed in with the entries. Can I categorize my own feeds (based on the sites taxonomy of course…my own would probably get a bit unwieldy)? Nope. Gotta leave that to Kinja…in their defense though, if each user had their own taxonomy then you'd have a system that was out of control and virtually useless like Blogorama or BlogsearchEngine, sans digest functionality. So I'm fine with the classification thing. Not that I expected any different mind you, but no feeds…man…that sucks.

Further, I don't find the digest page all that conducive to the way I read blogs…but that's just me, maybe some of you will.

Personally, I'm still a huge fan of Bloglines as my online aggregator, Feedster is pretty cool also, but I'm partial to Bloglines…slick interface (I know that it isn't very P.C.SS to say so, but I love the frames), it's also quick, and the notification functionality is very cool. With Bloglines, at least I can put things into "categories" or folders and then click on a folder and view everything in it or click on the individual feeds and view them on their own. Kinja…no folders either.

So, what's the bottom line? The bottom line is this…for all the hype of that Kinja.com page sitting around for months I don't know what took so long? Maybe when it moves out of beta and adds some more functionality it will be worth a second look, I just hope I don't forget my password in the meantime ;)

Update: Meg of Megnut.com is leaving at the end of April. Check out her quickie post. Very interesting. Also, Jason over at Kottke.org has some thoughts about Kinja.

Reader Comments

(Page 1)

1. I agree mostly with your thoughts on this Kinja thing - seems a bit pointless to me (except to make money through ads for the owner), also agree thoroughly with your thoughts on Bloglines. So I married the two up. What I do is use Kinja as a means to amalgamate posts from weblogs that don't have any RSS Feed. I then create a feed from Kinja using MyRSS, which I then subscribe to with Bloglines. It seems to work pretty well - http://www.bloglines.com/juniorbonner

Posted at 4:44AM on Dec 19th 2005 by juniorbonner

2. I like Kinja for the simple reason that it aggregates stuff for the other 99.9999% of folks who have no idea about Feedster, Bloglines or RSS.

I have a couple of friends who don't care to use RSS, or try to understand what an aggregator is. They use web-browsers to catch up to stuff, and they have my kinja URI to keep track of the few sites I've put up there. That's cool.

I think this is supposed to break through the geek/too much time on their hands-normal person barrier, and the fact you don't get it or like it is a good thing. And I don't mean that in a derogatory way, simply put, too many bells and whistles means too much inertia for those people *I know*.

They could improve on the digest to allow folks to get a better idea of what the post or entry says, but I imagine content/copyright/permission is an issue.

Posted at 4:44AM on Dec 19th 2005 by gummi

3. Hi

I am having second thoughts on this Kinja thing because I have a pretty good use for it.

I use it to aggregate posts from different bloggers who post mp3's - http://www.kinja.com/user/juniorbonnermp3

I can then use Webjay's playthis page bookmarklet - http://webjay.org/by/playthispage/kinjatheweblogguide4

to listen to all the mp3's posted. This saves so much time and mucking about visiting different sites and listening to stuff file by file. I also set up a MyRSS feed that I can subscribe to keep informed of new stuff in Bloglines - http://myrss.com/f/k/i/kinjaJuniorbonnermp35vs2sb0.rss

Posted at 4:44AM on Dec 19th 2005 by juniorbonner

4. I am having second thoughts on this Kinja thing because I have a pretty good use for it.

Posted at 4:44AM on Dec 19th 2005 by xasa

5. I have no idea about Feedster, Bloglines or RSS but I like Kinja for its simplicity. It looks nice, it's easy to use and it does save time. I think I understand your point of view and all your comments are really smart. But would I be able to use it after all those improvement were made?

Posted at 4:44AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Sarah

6. I agree mostly with your thoughts on this Kinja thing - seems a bit pointless to me (except to make money through ads for the owner), also agree thoroughly with your thoughts on Bloglines. So I married the two up. What I do is use Kinja as a means to amalgamate posts from weblogs that don't have any RSS Feed. I then create a feed from Kinja using MyRSS, which I then subscribe to with Bloglines. It seems to work pretty well - http://www.bloglines.com/juniorbonner

Posted at 4:44AM on Dec 19th 2005 by juniorbonner

7. I like Kinja for the simple reason that it aggregates stuff for the other 99.9999% of folks who have no idea about Feedster, Bloglines or RSS.

I have a couple of friends who don't care to use RSS, or try to understand what an aggregator is. They use web-browsers to catch up to stuff, and they have my kinja URI to keep track of the few sites I've put up there. That's cool.

I think this is supposed to break through the geek/too much time on their hands-normal person barrier, and the fact you don't get it or like it is a good thing. And I don't mean that in a derogatory way, simply put, too many bells and whistles means too much inertia for those people *I know*.

They could improve on the digest to allow folks to get a better idea of what the post or entry says, but I imagine content/copyright/permission is an issue.

Posted at 4:44AM on Dec 19th 2005 by gummi

8. Hi

I am having second thoughts on this Kinja thing because I have a pretty good use for it.

I use it to aggregate posts from different bloggers who post mp3's - http://www.kinja.com/user/juniorbonnermp3

I can then use Webjay's playthis page bookmarklet - http://webjay.org/by/playthispage/kinjatheweblogguide4

to listen to all the mp3's posted. This saves so much time and mucking about visiting different sites and listening to stuff file by file. I also set up a MyRSS feed that I can subscribe to keep informed of new stuff in Bloglines - http://myrss.com/f/k/i/kinjaJuniorbonnermp35vs2sb0.rss

Posted at 4:44AM on Dec 19th 2005 by juniorbonner

9. I am having second thoughts on this Kinja thing because I have a pretty good use for it.

Posted at 4:44AM on Dec 19th 2005 by xasa

10. I have no idea about Feedster, Bloglines or RSS but I like Kinja for its simplicity. It looks nice, it's easy to use and it does save time. I think I understand your point of view and all your comments are really smart. But would I be able to use it after all those improvement were made?

Posted at 4:44AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Sarah

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