With all the surveys kicking around about the use of RSS, or lack of, it occurred to me that the more technically-minded the Internet user, the more likely they are to be using RSS or Atom. I've have not dug deep enough to verify this, but it wouldn't at all surprise me. So I reiterate, publishers have to go to extremes to make site visitors aware of web feeds.

When the Internet was new to the public, the vast majority of users were technical people. Then designers got into the act, designing web pages, etc., as more non-technical companies wanted to promote themselves online. Internet marketing grew, and the average technical level of users dropped.

This evolution is important to keep in mind, when considering why RSS seems to be taking so long. From my point of view as both a webmaster, consultant, and former Search Engine webmaster, there are many millions of people still getting used to the Internet 10 years later. It'll be a while before RSS usage penetrates the 100 million or so users of the Internet.

I still maintain that RSS/web feeds usage will enjoy its greatest penetration invisibly. That is, via hardware. I'm dreaming here, but maybe someone will come up with a device similar to the Apple ipod, but with wi-fi capabilities and which automatically pulls in media-rich web feeds through pre-programmed "channels". Imagine getting all of your entertainment (print, radio, TV) on a single category of device.

As I see it, the end user doesn't need to know or care about the delivery mechanism (i.e., web feed XML format). If someone did a similar survey right now of Internet users about XML or even HTML, I wouldn't be surprised if a many users said that, well they think they've heard about HTML but don't really know what it is. So why then would people know about RSS after only a few short years?

(c) Copyright: 2005-present, Raj Kumar Dash, http://www.chameleonintegration.com