Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Specialty Hosting and Markets : RSS?

[slyseekr]

It seems that News Feeds and RSS has been fairly successful since it came about a few years ago. One only need to look at Facebook to understand how much the technology can transform a barely appreciated site into a juggernaut within a year or so.

I was wondering if any other companies have rallied on RSS in such an extensive format, more or less socializing the technology from sources more independent than personal feeds in Facebook?

It just seems there's a long ways to go to innovate on the technology, and not many companies are really executing and capitalizing on RSS' features and customizability properly.

Thanks!

[holmesa]

It depends on the company and if you really need it.

If you want to track changes to documentation or corporate portal, RSS may be much better then email notifications. But if you are not dependent on the information or information exchange is slow then why do you need it.

[slyseekr]

Thanks for your input.

I think I'm thinking more in the sense of combining RSS with complete customization (e.g. multi-feed into a single feed) and social bookmarking and indexing for the client-side. Say, are there any products out there that might build upon this need?

Also just wondering, as it seems a lot of folks like to rely on email and IM still, whether RSS would even be relevant for the client-side if it's dealing with corporate feeds vs. personal feeds.

[archertalk]

Personally, I am a big fan of RSS. It will surely be big sometime in the future.

The issue with RSS though is that if clients don't actually sign up for your RSS feeds, what's the sense?

[Fizzadar]

Bloggers use it, and they use feedburner (now google's feedburner), which has thrived in the new RSS age.

[holmesa]

Originally Posted by slyseekr

Thanks for your input.

I think I'm thinking more in the sense of combining RSS with complete customization (e.g. multi-feed into a single feed) and social bookmarking and indexing for the client-side. Say, are there any products out there that might build upon this need?

Also just wondering, as it seems a lot of folks like to rely on email and IM still, whether RSS would even be relevant for the client-side if it's dealing with corporate feeds vs. personal feeds.

Well, email and IM is a two side communication. RSS is just a way to notify about something new and point to a right place.

Each technology should be used corresponding to what is was meant for.

[fetchblog]

Feedburner is the best RSS feeder I have seen...I have tried numerous ones...some of which can be seen on my site, but I still havent been able to do too well with it...I am sure I will figure it out though, you are right...if you look at ProBlogger and some other sites, they have 35,000 people who subscribe to the site alone...so I would say yes, RSS Feeds has come a long way.

[alexky]

RSS feeds will be big thing in the future but right now not everyone uses it, as its not totally needed..

[holmesa]

why would it be the future and why it is not totally needed now?

[dprundle]

alexky are you in the same century as me buddy? RSS is required. It makes integration of other popular sites into your site seamless and easy. Examples for the monkey-brained: flickr photos, youtube videos, ebay auctions and more.. can all be dynamically generated from RSS feeds.

Alexky, you need to buy a book friend.

[holmesa]

Alexky might be saying that it is not used as much as could be. It would be good to know the reasons. Let's just let him say it.