Feed FactorySep27

Brooks Jordan 0 comments

RSS will eventually disappear. It will be used everywhere data moves from one place to another, but no will notice or care. That's the way it should be.

But before that happens, we need a critical mass of people to be aware of it. Not so much of the technology or the standard or the concept of syndication, but that, very basically, there's a pretty good way to get information - personalized and customized information - from one place to another, so we should take advantage of it.

So, first familiarity by the few, then it reverts to the background for the many.

If every company did as nice a job getting its people familiar with RSS as the BBC is doing with its readership, it wouldn't take long. The Feed Factory is a remarkable little section of their website that takes the trouble to explain how readers can take advantage of RSS to get the best of what the BBC produces.

"In a world heaving under the virtual weight of billions of web pages, keeping up with websites can be a chore. RSS feeds let you keep up to date with the latest info on all your favourite sites without having to take the trouble to visit them. In effect, bits of their sites come to you instead."

Right, it comes to you. That's the first and fundamental benefit of RSS. BBC's Feed Factory does a splendid job showing how. And so should all of us in business.