Originally by Tommi Pelkonen for Satama Research Blog
“The success of the RSS specification for content syndication, especially in the area of “blogging,” was unexpected and goes well beyond its original design goals. Other opportunities for its use have yet to be exploited.” Gartner, Ray Valdes, October 7, 2004
New booming phenomena, currently in the early adaptation phaseThe online media, especially hundreds of individuals in the “blogosphere” have for the last twelve months become became extremely enthusiastic about a new technology called webfeeds. In short, this term means a standard for subscribing and distributing information about new/updated things on a website. The phenomena’s physical form is various kinds of orange XML/RSS/ATOM-buttons on websites. About.com defines a webfeed as: “An XML-based file format that allows a list weblog or news information, known as feeds, to become available for syndication.” Most webfeeds (often called RSS or ATOM feeds) contain just a small amount of overview-style content.
We see this technology as one of the most promising and interesting solutions we should be aware of here in the Finland and beyond. As we are constantly inspired by behavioural aspect of digital lifestyle, webfeed has all the elements for this change. The end-users of webfeeds, i.e. readers/content consumers, can glance through a webfeed far more quickly than in browsing a Web site. In addition, users will not read just one webfeed. They will probably maintain a list of several webfeeds from their favorite sites. It has been stated that it requires far less time to scan the contents of, say, a dozen feeds than to individually visit and scan the same number of web sites. This may indicate a major change in the way we browse content online. Continue reading ‘RSS-Feeds – Business Opportunity’
