Another simple explanation of Really Simple Syndication (RSS)
The AP put out a good description of RSS that i found via Micropersuasion
One quote that stood out for me was by J.B. Holston of Newsgator:
“Hopefully no one will hear about RSS in two years,” Holston said. “RSS is really just plumbing. You’ll just be subscribing to what you want, where you want, and when you want it.”
I agree. And ZapTXT facilitates this notion of ‘not knowing what RSS is’.
We’ve previously talked about how RSS is really good as a transport mechanism for content but reading posts via a reader (in its current form) is what’s slowing down the proliferation of RSS. Big time.
More important, accounting for perishable or ‘need-to-know-know’ information is where RSS feeds have much more potential than is allowed by conventional readers. Shooting me an IM or SMS is much more useful when my prospect or client shows up on the front page of CNN with the words crisis, scandal, acquisition or when surf conditions at Ocean Beach are optimal. To some, an update on the weather forecast in Northern California for next week (we don’t have seasons here as you know) can wait to show up in a reader.
RSS musings with a PR and marketing lens is too important to us for me
to risk having this content be buried under a pile of feeds which will most certainly be the case by the time I
get to my reader. So here’s how I receive alerts on your feed, Steve…
ZapTask: RSS - RSS in Tech
Keywords to Monitor: RSS, Feeds
How my alert looks in my IM window:
Tags: RSS
