Just because Google Reader is dead does not mean that the RSS world has stopped turning. Quite the contrary, feeds are expected to boom as newer aggregators step up to fill the gap left by Reader, implementing more timely features and suggestions from users, providing an RSS experience that promises to be better than ever. So keep that WordPress RSS widget handy on your blog page.
The odds are good that, as the new crop of aggregators emerges, helpful tools like the WordPress and Android RSS widgets will be updated to keep up with the changes. What might those improvements look like? It might be hard to speculate, as the entire RSS process is already pretty streamlined. The code is small and fast, the options are well laid out, and the RSS feed widgets can be embedded nearly anywhere on your site. What is left?
The improvement of RSS feed creation widgets might have to wait until the RSS community gets a taste of the new readers, and can see what subscribers are demanding and expecting of their feed services. User comments and suggestions from the subscriber end will dictate what programmers include on the creation end. The result should be a broadly appealing synthesis of reader and readee widgets that expand our capabilities and widen the sense of global community on the magical world of the Interwebs.
Try not to mourn Google Reader too much. When one door closes, another inevitably opens. Your RSS feeds shall soldier on, better, faster, stronger… newsier.
What do you think would be a great improvement to the WordPress RSS widget? Are there any features you find you never use and think could be done away with? Leave your comments below. And keep blogging!