Peak RSS?

Forrester Research today published a new report on the state of RSS. In short, while there are bright spots, it does not paint the picture of a technology that's going mainstream anytime soon.

On a positive note, the research entitled What's Holding RSS Back?, says that nearly half of marketers have moved to add feeds to their web sites. Further, RSS adoption among consumers is at 11% up from just 2% of users three years ago. RSS feeds usage is more dominant among men.

Here's the kicker, though. That might be all she wrote for RSS' growth track.
According to the research, of the 89% of those who don't use feeds only 17% say they're interested in using them. In fact Forrester spends much of the report helping marketers better explain the benefits of RSS to their customers. "Unless marketers make a move to hook them — and try to convert their apathetic counterparts — RSS will never be more than a niche technology," the analysts (who include Jeremiah Owyang) wrote.

Source: Micro Persuasions (read it)

Hat Tip: Life Hacker

Commentary

The major problem with adoption of new tools is the lack of people willing to explain it to the people who aren't already tech-geeks (like me).

This is the best explanation of RSS I have found:

Most people can barely follow links on a blog, let alone jump into this stuff (I was very intimidated by those-who-knew-it-all when I first started) without having someone explain it to them without charging them $50 an hour to do it. Perhaps there is room for a whole class of blogs (tongue in cheek) to help people understand new techniques, and the potential of doing even greater things with all this new Web 2.0 and 3.0 "stuff".

Or, even better, a Carl Sagan or James Burke who can entertain people while they are educating them...and providing the spark to ignite the desire to learn more. The Learning Channel was once a learning channel...

Personally, I cannot imagine using the Internet without RSS. I have thousands of websites I use in my Google Readers. Yes, I have multiple Google Reader Accounts due to the sheer volume of stuff to keep up with, and I have them (mostly) categorized into well, categories.

I have one just for North Carolina, another for National and Campaign-related websites, another for World War IV stuff, and I am building a reading list of science and technology websites (which I may have to split because there are far more than I realized).

There is simply no way I could visit all these websites by myself, not even if there were 50 hours in a day. I am trying to design a website on which I can embed my various feeds, so other people can check out what is going on, and to see what I am sharing via my Shared Items list.

I am currently only updating this feed, so you can have a taste for what I am sharing. I have more listed on my left sidebar, and will begin updating them once this election is past. I am simply to busy right now to share on those other lists.

If people were exposed to the vast utility of RSS Feeds, their use would explode because they (depending on your point of view) allow you to save time, or become so much more productive in finding and sharing information.