Trends 2007: democratization of personal syndication

I'm making a risky little prediction here: RSS feeds and other popular syndication technologies have been around for a long time. 2007 would, in my opinion, be the year when consumers adopt it and when the technology is no longer marginal.

SECOND GENERATION RSS READERS

It must be said, several products offered to Internet users in the past to read and categorize RSS feeds were simply not pleasant to use. Now, several personal syndication products and solutions make the RSS experience all the more efficient and effective.

Integration with Microsoft Outlook 2007 may also significantly increase mass RSS feed viewing.

Moreover, the new products are more and more efficient, it is possible to personalize them and I would even go so far as to say that they have a certain elegance. Netvibes , Webwag , Yourminis , Pageflakes , Eskobo , Protopage , Live and Google Homepage are all 100% customizable web portals using RSS feeds. They allow, via Ajax or Flash, to personalize in a very advanced way the reception of RSS feeds. They also make available several other widgets, or tools of all kinds offering the latest Dilberts through the weather. Most importantly, they allow you to receive the content you want, organized the way you want it.

And this is only the beginning… The year 2007 was that of the conquest of three-quarters of users [1] Internet Americans used RSS feeds Internet that does not yet use RSS feeds.

…SECOND GENERATION RSS SERVICES

If on the side of the customers the RSS makes its way, it is the same with the editors of site. Unfortunately, the majority of online services that use them are “old” web businesses like eBay and Craigslist . More media-oriented sites have followed suit, even here where Radio -Canada , Cyberpresse andbranchez-vous.com make good use of RSS feeds. Using RSS feeds brilliantly consists in offering them in the most segmented way possible. Even better is to allow unlimited segmentation, by keyword for example via RSS feeds. This means that a user visits your site only when it is relevant to him. This may mean fewer visits or fewer advertising impressions, but it is also a moment of truth that the Internet user lives with the site that ensures his loyalty.