Robert Scoble blogged about the RSS ignorance too. Lots of interesting comments on Scoble's blog about feeds. Some things that I can tell from the comments:
- Feed consumption today is lacking tools, since most people either use a Browser or a Newsreader/Feedreader. Current Feedreaders suck at reading anything more than a few dozen feeds. Online services have made it easier to read and manage many more feeds, but the software does not help you do smart things with your subscriptions like track attention or conversations and relationships.
- Many people don't have a feed consumption strategy. So they consume feeds like they do email. For 20 susbcriptions, you can do it like email. For 100 subscriptions, you will eventually give up on using the feed reader or Browser to consume feeds. A simple strategy would be to have a must read list and let software find other interesting things that you are interested in. (more on this in a later post)
- Many RSS evangelists agree that feeds will make a difference in how we consume information. Some of the most promising feed scenarios are in the enterprise like in shared calendars, bulletin boards, announcements etc. That's why it so sad that most people in the workplace haven't heard about it.
Newsflash: 98% don’t use RSS
Dead 2.0 reminds us that the cup is way empty when it comes to RSS knowledge or usage.
Hmmm. The thing is back in 2000 it was “.0000001%.”
In 2006 it is “2%.”That’s pretty sizeable growth. And the doubling effect continues.
Next year IE 7 ships with an RSS aggregator. Last week Maryam started using RSS for the first time.
Remember the old saw? Would you rather have $100,000 today or a penny doubled every day for a month?
I can hang out and watch the doubling effect.
Why is RSS usage going to continue to double? Influencers are doing it. As long as the cool kids who go to FOOcamp keep using RSS the rest of us will start catching on and doing it too. Just watch.
Where’s the business opportunity? Well, if the doubling effect continues, let’s meet back here again in 2010 and compare who won and lost this game.
Every new technology has been derided this way. Remember when Ken Olsen, CEO of DEC, said “there is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home?”*
That’s the same sentiment that’s coming up here. On the other hand, if everyone instantly “got it” there wouldn’t be any business opportunity, would there?
*Yes, I realize Ken was quoted out of context back in 1977, the Snopes article that quote links to explains how that happened. Still, I’ve heard this over and over again throughout my career. It’s why big companies miss small things that then later go on to be important.
Filed under: blogging, RSS @ 3:07 pm #
39 Comments »
The way I explain RSS is, “Instead of visiting each of your favourite websites daily, you can see headlines/snippets from each one and decide if its worth your time”.
But the problem I’ve found is, I’ve subscribe to so many feeds that any time-savings have probably been lost. I’m happy because I get to learn more but I’m addicted to following all the links about various discussions. It wastes so much time, I’m not so sure if I like it better.
I need software to predict what’s most important hahah.
Comment by Anonymous — August 28, 2006 @ 4:19 pm
Why is RSS usage going to continue to double? Influencers are doing it. As long as the cool kids who go to FOOcamp keep using RSS the rest of us will start catching on and doing it too. Just watch.
Oh please. The “Kewl Kidz” have nothing to do with it. You know what does?
RSS no longer requiring a separate app. RSS in:
FireFox
IE
Safari
Outlook 2007
Mail in Leopard
ThunderbirdIt’s RSS being in the applications that people are already using in a useful way that is increasing its use, not the fact that Scoble and Friends get all squishy over it.
I’ve known about RSS since Winer first started talking about it, but there was no way I was running another application just for that crap. As soon as it showed up in the applications I use? Now I use RSS.
Dude, really, stop thinking that the BloggerKewlKidz matter outside of that “A-List” circle jerk, because they really don’t.
Comment by John C. Welch — August 28, 2006 @ 4:22 pm
Pat - go re-read my post and tell me what you disagree with. My point is on EDUCATION and USE of the technology. I don’t advocate dumping RSS, I just don’t think it’s being well handled, and I think it’s contributing to the problem of people being afraid of tech.
Robert - I must say, I don’t agree with your point on ‘influencers do it’ as the reason RSS will be successful. Frankly, RSS is just as problematic an experience as Web surfing and bookmarks are. I think John’s comments on it being properly integrated into other applications and Web sites that make the difference.
Case in point - my.yahoo. Best home page (in my opinion), and full RSS integration, with almost NO ‘techie’ references anywhere. It might not be as Ajax-y as netvibes, but it’s one of the best customizable pages out there.
“But the problem I’ve found is, I’ve subscribe to so many feeds that any time-savings have probably been lost.” Totally agree. And RSS is semi-invisible; you don’t really NOTICE you’re using it (if you do it in your browser).
The one I can’t figure out is instant messaging– does anybody actually us that in real life?
Comment by tomB. — August 28, 2006 @ 4:55 pm
Interesting discussion
—–
” The thing is back in 2000 it was “.0000001%.” In 2006 it is “2%.””
—–
Miniscule to micro in six years…big deal.PXLated: it’s the doubling effect.
A penny doubled everyday for a month is totally uninteresting (at least compared to $100,000) until around the 25th day. Then it starts to get VERY interesting. So we’re still on the 14th day of RSS. No biggie! But don’t bet against it!
http://www.al6400.com/blog/2006/07/10/a-penny-doubled-everyday/
Comment by Robert Scoble — August 28, 2006 @ 5:38 pm
RSS inclusion in browsers and other apps accounts for increased “use”…but then so much eyeballs accounting going on there. RSS will remain a niche geek thing, heck RSS advocates can’t even decide upon which icon to use. Just bring back Pointcast, and 2006 it all up…
A-List’ers playing up the elitist KeWL KiDDiEz geek theory…now there’s a surprise. ((Rolls Eyes)). But it’s all so much noise. It won’t matter…it’s just a result of what happens when your world revolves around staring bug-eyed at LCD screens all the live long day.
Something taken that many years, with still dubious marketshare rates, only clinking in at 2% in the real world is a failure, if you look at it from the overall side, rather than the growth from 0% to 2%.
Comment by Christopher Coulter — August 28, 2006 @ 5:42 pm
That’s understandable for Windows users, since until now there was no system-level RSS support. Most average users (non-power users) probably stick to standard applications so they most likely won’t have an RSS reader.
The percentage of Mac users who use RSS is a lot higher, since several standard applications have RSS support built-in. Safari comes pre-configured with several RSS feed subscriptions and one of the screen savers displays RSS headlines. In Leopard, Mail can show RSS feeds as mailboxes.
Robert,
At 30 Boxes we have more than 30,000 rss feeds under management. And you know what, only a tiny % of people have actually added them. We make extensive use of rss for our users’ benefit — like a calendar feed reader but they don’t need to be tech savvy.
I think you will see increasing use of data flow in this way.
I think you are right. This will be another hockey stick effect at some point. Of course it will help a lot with IE7, Firefox 2.0, Windows Live, and Google home page.
Also late adopters are creeping in. I work for a big Canadian Bank, and guess what … we talked the Investor Relations folks to deliver their news releases in rss. Sure it took 3 attempts over the last 2 years, and we had to make it idiot proof, but we are now implementing … post once to Vignette, and automatically create a web page, and a feed simultaneously.When I show clients the Flock browser and what it does with OPML links (one click adds the feeds), and the Juice Podcast Receiver(one URI synchs all feeds), they get it.
RSS has to be integrated ! OPML will help.
Comment by Alan Wilensky — August 28, 2006 @ 6:28 pm
Robert, you keep talking about the “small things”.
You have half a point.
True enough, the big things of today started as small things
yesterday. However, it’s not true that all of yesterday’s
small things grew up to be big. Knowing _which_ small
things to pay attention to, is the hard part. (I sure don’t.)Comment by Bob Goldstein — August 28, 2006 @ 6:47 pm
Alfred (comment 17): I am, of course, aware that PDP formally stood for “Programmable Data Processor.” What I was trying to say is that the PDP-1 and following machines were the first that were cheap enough and small enough to be really “personal” machines.(i.e. machines for the use of only one or two engineers…) Thus, the PDP series can be given credited with having given a kick start to the era of “Personal Data Processing”…
bob wyman
“That being said, if Ken Olsen was wrong about people wanting terminals than the Google people are going down the wrong trail with their web based applications. All of this “thin client” and “web applications” stuff is just timesaharing wrapped in a different wrapper.”
So far, people haven’t really wanted thin clients. Not in any real numbers. There are a few breakouts now but still nothing overwhelming. Google is trying again, but the jury is still out. Certainly Ken Olsen was wrong when he predicted that the terminal was never going away in business contexts. It may come back in a new form but it has been gone for many years. The last gasp was X-Terms. I haven’t seen one of those in 10 years.
Comment by James Bailey — August 28, 2006 @ 6:50 pm
James, go to a Nebraska Furniture Mart…Wyse WinTerms everywhere. Thin clients are rather popular in quite a few applications.
The one I can’t figure out is instant messaging– does anybody actually us that in real life?
I live on it. It’s at least as critical as email, and a much better tech support resource for me than email by a long shot.
Comment by John C. Welch — August 28, 2006 @ 7:04 pm
RSS will be successful when no one except the geeks would know it. Right now there is no point in explaining “rss” or “feed” to my mom. Same way, 12 years ago, she didn’t give a damn about HTTP. But she started using a computer (and later hotmail) simply because she could start communicating with me and her grandson. If I tried to communicate her the power of HTTP and corporate firewalls and cross-platform portability of web pages, she still wouldn’t have bought a computer.
Comment by george bush — August 28, 2006 @ 7:25 pm
Here’s an RSS usability anecdote from someone who is technically capable but ignorant of RSS: I expected RSS to be a lot like the old push tech (and I thought RSS was based on CDF), whereby a client periodically pings a server for updates such that the user is alerted to updated content & views it. What I found with IE7 was a unified stylesheet for viewing a 2nd set of Favorites. Maybe I’m misusing IE7, but as an aggregator, I didn’t really see the aggregation aspect of it. To me, it just looked like a way to make a bunch of different blogs look alike when I was expecting it to make it easier for me to see when my pool of blogs have updates that I haven’t read.
Comment by Keith Patrick — August 28, 2006 @ 7:29 pm
I think RSS almost has to win. What’s the alternative? WS-Eventing? WS-Notification? The world needs some kind of simple publish and subscribe mechanism… something where a user can say, “Let me know when this changes.”
There are lots of other examples of large companies missing the boat, you don’t have to pick on DEC.
Intel thought the microprocessor was a dumb idea, for example….
I agree DEC didn’t really “get” the PC. The way I remember it, they were kind of late to the game, and their PCs were always sort of bizarrely incompatible with all other PCs. AND more expensive to boot. Sort of like Apple used to be. LOL
Like Apple, they always had good-looking hardware. The front panel on a PDP-11/70… you know, back in the day, that seemed soooo futuristic… now where did I put my RSX-11M manual….
Comment by Karim — August 28, 2006 @ 7:34 pm
I just turned my mother on to a feed reader two weeks ago, so I’m not surprised to hear that Maryam just started using them too. Though I agree with the continued doubling, I think there is going to be a hockey stick inflection point in the RSS adoption curve VERY soon.
Comment by Andrew Parker — August 28, 2006 @ 8:09 pm
I’m surprised the number is that low. You know what I think? It means there’s still a huge opportunity to introduce people to RSS and evangelize it. I was a bit of a late comer to RSS, and the more I use it, the more completely indispensible I find it.
With the release and adoption of the Microsoft Office Suite and other Office Server products such as SharePoint, RSS will begin to take off like email did several years ago. Corporate users (who aren’t tech people) will start to understand what the RSS icon is and what it does once they start using it in these and competing new products. With portals becoming a more common method of finding and creating data for internal corporate consumption, RSS will become much more important. I think it will become nearly as important as e-mail in the next 4 years. This will be especially true with the majority using Outlook and the new 2007 version incorporating an RSS reader out of the box.
RSS - Some Marketing required!
Robert Scoble blogged about an article on Dead 2.0 belaboring the point that only 2% of users accessed content on the Internet via RSS. While it’s a fact that Soaring on Ridgelift has a distinguished readership, a majority of you
Trackback by Soaring on Ridgelift — August 28, 2006 @ 8:56 pm
@28. “Introduce people to RSS….”??? That is the WRONG strategy. That would be like me introducing my Mom to POP, IMAP, and SMTP so she could “get” email. Outside of the geeks and wanna-be Geeks in the blogosphere no one cares WHAT makes up the technology. Just show them why getting automagic updates to their favorite web sites might be a cool thing to have. On the other hand, go ahead, do the Jay Leno “man on the street” question about RSS and see how far you get.
Geezus! It’s NOT about the technology.
Comment by LayZ — August 28, 2006 @ 9:54 pm
“Where’s the business opportunity?”
Still always thinking about the monies
Where’s the business opportunity in HTML? Oh, wait, you mean browsers are free? And so are RSS readers.(as a side note, all browsers suck at RSS. Get a dedicated RSS reader)
I asked a guy I work with yesterday (cutting edge gaming company) if he had an interesting Feeds to share.
Not only did he not know what they were, but couldn’t understand them.
Even when I popped up bloglines his response was along the lines of ‘But why don’t you just go to each page?’
Comment by Rick Stirling — August 29, 2006 @ 12:35 am
I started a magazine called ‘The World Wide Web Newsletter’ in 1993 because I knew that this was important and I wanted to evangelise it. For the first few years, a lot of very clever people would dismiss my pitch with the line ‘Isn’t it just CB radio all over again’. Well, it probably took those clever people another couple of years to get it. But get it they did in the end.
The problem is that you don’t know if RSS is on the 14th day or the 30th. The “all the cool kids” argument doesn’t work - all the cool kids have been using Linux or Macs for years, and I don’t see the market shares of those products growing fast.
RSS will grow, of course. Whether it will be a mass market product depends on the applications people build with it, not the technology itself. What you and others are forgetting is that RSS is an enabler, not a product.
Comment by Ian Betteridge — August 29, 2006 @ 3:21 am
Why don’t 98% of people know about RSS?
Scoble comments on the article on Dead 2.0 which claims that only 2% of people use RSS.
I’d say many people don’t *need* to know what RSS (or a ‘feed’) is. They probably use it in places without knowing it.
As more publishers sy…Trackback by kosso's braingarden — August 29, 2006 @ 6:24 am
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