Another good example of how RSS is being used more and more as the information center of choice. Greg Hughes says he saves about 300 hours of time per week because he gets much of his information through RSS webfeeds:
I use RSS feeds for practically everything now. Rarely do I browse to a web site these days as my first method of gathering my daily doses of information. The data comes to me, based on my subscriptions. I know what I need, and I use the tools to get it. I find information sources just once, and then let the tools take care of the rest. I update my information world in real time, using tools like FeedDemon to do the dirty work for me.
That’s exactly where I am with RSS. What’s more, I am beginning to unsubscribe from email-delivered newsletters and other information where the website or blog offers an RSS-delivered alternative. That just makes sense.
This is the fourth post I’ve written about RSS in the past week or so. I think this will become a very hot topic, one that business communicators in particular should pay very close attention to. (I’ve now created an RSS category in this blog.)
There has been much media coverage about RSS in recent weeks, and increasingly on blogs. A report in Wired News on 26 August caught my attention, focusing on how companies like Technorati, NewsGator and Feedster are beginning to attract attention (and money) from venture capitalists and others.
This comment from Brad Feld, a venture capitalist at Mobius Venture Capital (who recently invested in news aggregator NewsGator):
RSS is at the edge of a huge acceleration in adoption. The early users have been bloggers, which have clearly exploded geometrically…. The next adopters are online content publishers. Corporations are starting to use the technology. This is where it will go mainstream. The novelty factor has clearly worn off. We’re now shifting into a mode where folks are looking for and extracting value from the platform.