By now, even the most dedicated of Luddites will have noticed a small orange square sporting a radio wave-like pattern on some of their favorite websites. This button, which is often accompanied by the phrase “Subscribe now”, indicates an RSS capability. RSS, which can stand for Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication, is a tool which allows individual users to access continual updates to website from an outside page or reader. An RSS reader gives you access to content on your favorite sites without the tedious step of actually visiting them.
Any user can initiate the subscription service by either entering a link into the RSS reader (also called an “aggregator”), or by clicking on the above-mentioned little icon. The reader then crawls your favorite websites to check for new content, and downloads any updates it discovers. The process works by pulling content from XML files (usually supported by blogging/content management tools) into a reader software. The idea was pioneered by Netscape, which wanted to give users the ability to personalize their homepages with links to external websites that they visited frequently. The icon, however, was the design of Mozilla Firefox and was quickly adopted as a universal symbol for RSS by other leaders in the field. RSS feeds go beyond simple bookmarking, though, by offering what amounts to headlines or teasers of new content.
RSS readers are sometimes described as a “personal newspaper”, which give users control of what type of content they want to see. For example, if you’re like me and you skip immediately to the Comics section of the newspaper, you could use an RSS application to limit your online reading to only Dilbert.com, though you’d probably be less-informed as a result. On the other hand, if your investment banking job requires you to closely follow the real estate market, you could set yourself up to receive continual updates on that topic from a variety of news and industry sites. Users are in complete control of the content they view, and they do not have to depend on remembering to check each site in order to stay informed about topics that are important to them.
RSS is one of the most user-friendly technologies to break into the mainstream as of late. People love saving time by having updates at their fingertips; they also love not having to give out their email addresses in order to receive updates like newsletters and press releases. Unlike email subscriptions, RSS feeds are also free from spam. It’s easy to unsubscribe and change your preferences at any time, without the hassle of sending an email or filling out a form.
In addition to pleasing the user, RSS is also making waves among content providers and businesses who advertise on the web. RSS subscriptions can serve as a targeted advertising forum, allowing web businesses to send out product updates, news, and sales/coupon information to users who actually want to hear from them. Ads become targeted and businesses don’t have the uncomfortable task of sending out spam, which is generally dumped directly into junk mail folders anyway. The downside is that RSS subscriptions are difficult to track, and it’s hard to know if subscriptions translate directly into site visitors. This issue is something that either RSS or analytics technology is likely to address.
The benefits of using some form of RSS subscriptions are many. In addition to enticing regular visitors to check back in for new content, your site will have the ability to speak directly to your most interested, valuable users. RSS technology is also starting to reach beyond its traditional stomping ground in the blogosphere to new users within the corporate world. One company which is attempting to fill this gap is KnowNow, which is marketing their product
Enterprise Syndication Solution as an alternative to search and email. Companies could apply this technology for distributing updates to intranet sites, policy manuals, project folders, or company blogs to their employees around the world. Imagine the possibilities of eliminating large email attachments by simply allowing employees to subscribe to feeds which notify them when a component has been uploaded to an ftp site or internal server. RSS could be a key ingredient in improving antiquated corporate communications. I’d be surprised if large companies don’t find the benefits of this technology as compelling as I do.