seanbonner: Why aren't you using RSS yet?

January 21, 2004

Why aren't you using RSS yet?

Chris has been IMing me the play by play of things going down at RSS Winterfest and it got me to thinkin'. RSS has so completely changed the way that I interact with the web, that occationally when I talk to someone and mention it and get the "huh?" blank stare I realize what a geek I am, but also that not everyone is using this amazing feature yet.

I'm not talking about people like my mom, hell she didn't really get a grap on e-mail till post-2000, I'm talking about people I talk to and see every day, friends, other bloggers, even bloggers who have RSS feeds on their own sites, etc. For me, I kept seeing "RSS" on people's sites and was sure that I was totally out of some cool loop because I didn't know what it was and hunted it down to see what I was missing. Now that I use it I could never go back.

So, what I want to know, is if are not using RSS, why not? If you are reading this, you've undoubtably heard me yapping about it for a while, and probably seen it other sites to, so I want to know what standing in your way?

I have some friends who have TiVo and they say it changed their lives and try to talk all their friends into getting it. RSS is the TiVo of the web, it does basically what TiVo does but for websites. Now, with TiVo there's equiptment and costs and all kinds of things to keep people from jumping on board. There's none of that with RSS. I'm not trying to talk anyone into using it (today anyway) I just want to know why you aren't. I expect all 7 of my reders to comment about this.

UN-RSS related: Joi just posted this.

Posted by sean on January 21, 2004 02:46 PM | View blog reactions
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Comments

Dude, you shoulda listened to the webcast. It was interesting to hear thenings get debated and read the IRC channel #rss-winterfest at the same time.

It's on again tomorrow at 8:30AM.

Posted by: Michael on January 21, 2004 04:50 PM

Sean:

Hi - I must be reader number 8. ;-)

I agree - TiVo is alot like RSS and I wonder sometimes if there's a correlation in adoption. TiVo is expreiencing a fair adoption curve not be cause of the time-shifting capabililty necessarily, but because almost anyone can use it. This is far from the case with RSS. Also, there _is_ a cost of using RSS and it's a pretty high price tag (in terms of time) for people that are just starting out.

http://myst-technology.com/mysmartchannels/public/item/11706

But I agree - people of like-mind _should_ be using this because it's good for business, it's good for personal reasons, and it allows you to look (and actually be) really well informed at your next meeting with the boss. ;-)

--bf

Posted by: Bill French on January 24, 2004 04:12 PM

I'm someone who knows about RSS but doesn't use or have any desire to use a feed reader. I was going to respond here, but since this post is a little old I posted my thoughts on my site.

http://ericrichardson.com/evolution/view/rantings/view_post/1180

Posted by: e; on January 27, 2004 06:52 PM

cigarettes - buy cigarettes

Posted by: cigarettes on October 24, 2004 03:41 AM