Trends in 2007: Democratization of Personal Syndication

A little risky prediction: RSS feeds and the other popular syndication technologies have been in existence for a long time. 2007 will be the year where consumers adopt such technology and when the technology is no longer marginal.

Second Generation RSS Readers

It has to be said that many products previously offered to Internet users in the past for reading and categorizing RSS feeds were simply not user friendly. Today, many products and solutions for personal syndication make for a more useful and performing RSS experience.

Integration in Microsoft Outlook 2007 could also considerably increase the perusal of RSS feeds by all.

Furthermore, the new products are increasingly efficient, making it possible to personalize them and I’ll even go so far as to say that they have a certain elegance to them. Netvibes, Webwag, Yourminis, Pageflakes, Eskobo, Protopage, Live and Google Homepage are all web portals that are 100% personalizeable thanks to RSS feeds. Via Ajax or Flash, RSS feeds allow you to personalize the reception of RSS feeds in a very sophisticated manner. Many more widgets or tools of all kinds are thus accessible, offering the most recent Dilberts and the weather. More importantly, they allow you to receive the content of your choice, organized precisely in the manner you desire.

And it’s only a beginning…The year 2007 is about winning over the three quarters of Internet users [1] that do not already use RSS feeds.

…Second Generation RSS Services

If RSS feeds are reaching the clientele, so are the site editors. Unfortunately, the majority of online services that make use of them are “ancient companies” on the Web such as eBay or craigslist. Media intensive sites have joined in; locally, even Radio-Canada, Cyberpresse and branchez-vous.com make judicious use of RSS feeds. Successful use of RSS feeds implies that they must be offered in the most segmented manner possible. Even better, allowing unlimited segmentation through key words, for example, by means of RSS feeds. This means that an Internet user consults your website only when it is relevant for them to do so, resulting in fewer visits and less advertising. However, it is also a moment of truth as the Internet user makes use of the site to which he is loyal.

We will have to watch for more sophisticated RSS services in 2007.

[1] According to ROI Research, in September 2006, 28% of american internet users were using RSS feeds.