Blogs are not the Future of RSS

While blogs vaulted RSS into the limelight, they unlikely to be the force that sustains RSS as a communication medium. The best opportunities for RSS are not in the blogosphere but as a corporate communication channel.

Businesses that were reluctantly evaluating RSS initially are starting to realize the power and benefit of the RSS information stream. The inherent capacity for consumers to select the content they wish to receive will be the driving mechanism for keeping as to a minimum and content quality consistent.

Blogs were boosted by the "cool factor" when they first came on the scene. As the novelty of being new and “hip” wears off, Internet webmasters and bloggers are realizing that maintaining a website or blog is a time-consuming venture. Being "cool" is nice, but that feeling often wears off if it is not monetized. The ease of blogging ensures that a vast array of blogs will be available, and only a handful can sustain fresh, constant, unique content which will generate any sort of reasonable or significant revenue. As a result, blogs as we know them today will likely fade into the background, with many blogs already being abandoned.

RSS won‘t die with the blogs. It’s a tool that saves Internet surfers time and allows webmasters to re-purpose and re-package existing and new content, so there’s no reason that it won’t continue to thrive. A business using RSS effectively and efficiently can bring in and hold new site visitors, increase search engine positioning, and generate product interest. The flexibility of RSS as a communication medium and the expansion capabilities of the enclosure tag will allow RSS to flourish as an online marketing tool. Every day businesses are finding and adopting new uses for RSS, and users like the convenience of skimming content chosen from a single, centralized location.

As businesses adopt RSS and consumers experiment with feeds, there’s no reason that the popularity of RSS won’t continue to grow. As is always the case, consumers are the driving force behind technology. The convenience of RSS and increased popularity will set a precedent for consumer expectations. Businesses using RSS as a communication vehicle are able to create keyword-rich, themed content, establishing trust, reputation, and ongoing communication with current and prospective customers.

The RSS benefit to consumers is that they can opt-in to content of interest and completely be in control of the flow of information they receive. If the quality of the content in the feed declines, users simply delete the feed from their RSS reader and they will not receive any additional updates from that source. RSS readers act as aggregators, allowing users to view and scan multiple content streams in a timely fashion.

Ultimately, RSS will be a standard, like email addresses and websites are now a "must" for businesses. Those companies using RSS feeds as a communication medium can notify interested customers of specials, discounts, product announcements, technical support tips, news. Consumers will come to expect the flow information and businesses that are slow to adopt will be left behind and be seen as “out of tou