RSS: next big thing, or nothing?

June 9, 2002 9:13 PM

Recent thread on RSS was a real eye opener. The ever growing mass of great blog material to read is making it impossible to keep up. With abundant tools now available for the blog writer, more and better tools are needed for the blog reader, or one will be forever swamped. (Another good summary on how RSS can help here, another good aggregator/reader here. , don't think either were mentioned in recent thread)
posted by Voyageman to general weblog-related at 9:13 PM (3 comments total)

I still can't tell if this is going to be "the next big thing" or if it's doomed to buzz-word limbo. Remember "push technology"? Wait, I guess this is push technology. There goes that analogy!

I'm still trying to really dig what RSS autodiscovery is all about. I guess it's just a simple HTML element to make it easier for programs to find RSS feeds on websites -- certainly a neat thing.

After reading this thread, I'm not holding my breath for a NYT RSS feed.

I'd better hurry up and get my new page up and stop reading these sites. I'm running a dangerous risk of becoming the blogger most knowledgeable about RSS who doesn't implement it (you see, I'm no expert, but everyone who is had an XML feed up months ago).
posted by Eamon at 10:44 AM on June 10, 2002

In my reader, my first and only Arts and Letters Daily message announces they will no longer keep the feeds going, and the last update from kottke.org is May 31. Either I am doing something very wrong or this stuff is the fastest "next big thing" to become yesterdays news. Still worth implementing?
posted by Voyageman at 11:50 AM on June 10, 2002

My hunch is that the impracticality of earning revenue from RSS feeds will keep them from going mainstream. Markpasc suggested a solution in the last thread, but I'm not sure it would work -- it's one thing to go to a site a see adds, but it's another when the ads are coming to you. It's not much of a distinction (you still download everything you see when you browse the web), but webpages seem to create their own "virtual space." If I was downloading an RSS feed full of ads, I'd feel like they were invading my space.

In the meantime, rather than a "big thing," I wouldn't mind if the trend was confined to webloggers (which, I suppose, is a "big thing" in its own right). I'm looking forward to the day when I can load a single application or webpage to get my fill of blogs. When I'm bored, I like to click around and see other people's designs, but my addiction can't always wait that long.
posted by Eamon at 12:08 PM on June 10, 2002