Are You Using RSS and Podcasts?
Posted by Harry McCracken | Friday, October 07, 2005 9:14 AM PT
I've spent much of this week at Web 2.0, a conference on the next wave of smarter, more interactive, more collaborative services and sites. The show's been an exciting, entertaining zoo, and many of the products debuting here will show up in PC World and on PCWorld.com in the coming weeks and months, for sure.
One interesting tidbit: I attended a Yahoo event at which it discussed a recent survey it conducted about adoption of RSS by mainstream Internet users. As cool as RSS is, it remains largely unknown: 88 percent of the folks who took the survey said they weren't aware of it, and 96 percent said they weren't using it.
Part of the point of the survey was that RSS
technology is still little-known (and somewhat confusing even to many folks who know it), but its
benefits--getting quick, customized information in one place--are catching on. The survey results show that 27 percent of respondents are using RSS-powered services such as Yahoo's own My Yahoo; they just don't know that RSS is involved.
And maybe they shouldn't have to think about it. I used to think that RSS would catch on like the Web and e-mail did. Looks like it's more like the HTTP protocol or TCP/IP--an essential enabling technology that most people shouldn't have to have to think about.
With readers that auto-sense feeds and tools like "Add to My Yahoo" buttons, we're slowly getting there. But there are still scads of sites--including, full disclosure, PCWorld.com--that expect users to figure out that an orange "XML" button leads to an RSS feed...and that you need to paste the feed's URL into an RSS reader. Pretty darn confusing.
Oh, how about podcasts? A relatively healthy 28 percent of respondents said they'd heard of 'em...but only 2 percent were actually listening. (I wonder how many iPod owners are, now that it's ridiculously easy to snag podcasts through iTunes?)
Yahoo published its results as a white paper that you can
download here. (The link's on the right-hand side of the page.)
Wholly unscientific poll: Are you using RSS? If so, what tool or service do you use to read your feeds? And are you listening to podcasts?
I use FeedDemon to read my feeds. It's the best tool out there for RSS.
I use Mozilla's Thunderbird as my email client, and subscribe to several RSS feeds via that. Engadget's gizmo feeds and PVRBlog top my lists. I wish more sites were using RSS. I agree with the author that its obscure for the nontechnical user to have to copy the URL to an orange XML button into their reader.
I am using a combination of Mozilla Thunderbird, Google Desktop "Webclips" and Bloglines for the RSS feeds. Bloglines is simple to use and I think I am going to phase out the Mozilla use.
I am using a combination of Mozilla Thunderbird, Google Desktop "Webclips" and Bloglines for the RSS feeds. Bloglines is simple to use and I think I am going to phase out the Mozilla use.
Yes. RSS and deli.icio.us is what brought me to this post. After spending some time with FeedDemon and NetNewsWire I find that the browser-based RSS aggregators are the most convenient. The Sage plug-in for Firefox is nice for when I want to find something to read.
However, lately I think my most used RSS feed reader is the Web Clips module for the Google Desktop Sidebar. It is "smart" enough to show me feeds from sites I visit most and being right there on my desktop it is a constantly refreshing ticker of things I'm probably interested in.
But I think the author of the post is correct. RSS needs to be just that convenient and invisible in order to catch on to the mainstream. Most people just aren't going to open a RSS reader as they would an email client. But a subtle ticker of interesting stories works pretty well.
I use Attensa for RSS so that my feeds are in Outlook in folders with my email. For podcasts I use iPodder. I have an iPod but since I don't use iTunes I haven't tried to listen to podcasts on it.
I love RSS... and OPML... Dave Winer developed both; here's one of his web pages: http://archive.scripting.com/dir/davesWorld/weblogArchive/2005/september.
I am currently using Opera 8.0, which automatically reads whether or not a web page has an RSS feed. I have used Sage w/ Firefox, and that's very nice also. The Christian Science Monitor has been testing OPML, but the best that I have come across is the New York Times.
Sage extension for Firefox, combined with Adblock... and Google Desktop Web Clips on windows...
I use Opera's integrated RSS reader, and whenever I am on a site that has an RSS link, Opera puts a small RSS logo in my search bar , alerting me that theres a feed link on this page...so I never look for the orange XML logo.
I got to this page from a link in my RSS reader. I'm using the sidebar of Maxthon and find it's great for my hundred or so feeds.
Tried Google Reader today but found it slower and less intuitive.
On my iBook, I use NetNewsWire Lite for RSS feeds, and of course iTunes & my iPod mini for podcasts. The podcasts I primarily listen to are those related to my two most recent obsessions: ViewAskew (Kevin Smith's production company) and Serenity/Firefly (if you haven't seen the movie yet...GO!)
My Windows machine is my secondary computer (used mainly for games and my bigger CD/DVD burning projects), so I don't usually read RSS feeds on it, although Firefox does have some built-in RSS capabilities. My main music/podcast library is stored on this computer, and I use iTunes and my iPod mini.
I am using googles personalized homepage
sure do.... it's a such a cute technology..... and opera 8.x have it's ovn reader to keep all things in one place ;)
podcasting?.... not really, but going to..... right now, thinking of making my own show.