Google Labs just announced a new blog and RSS news reader called Google Reader. I need to check it out.
Last night after the Web 2.0 sessions, about three dozen of us retired to the Thirsty Bear for free beers (try the ESB) — Yahoo! picked up the tab — and to hear the results of the latest study of Americans’ RSS habits. Yeah, we’re a fun-loving group.
For those not in the know, RSS (which has come to stand for Really Simple Syndication) is a way to subscribe to news, info and rich media and have it delivered to your desktop automatically. It’s news that comes to you — a coin I termed a few years ago.
The new study, just released by Yahoo! and Ipsos Insight, provides an interesting glimpse at the state of RSS. Some metrics:
Awareness and usage of RSS
Only 12% of the U.S. online population (not the general population) had heard of RSS; 88% were unaware.
While 12% said they’d heard of it, only 4% of users said they used RSS.
But the interesting factoid uncovered by the study is the number of people who use RSS without knowing that they do. The study broke out the U.S. online population this way:
4% aware RSS users
27% unaware RSS users
69% do not use RSS
Of the unawares, most were subscribing to feeds provided by My Yahoo! (72%), My MSN (41%), Google Personalized Start Page (10%) and Bloglines (2%).
Subscriptions
What are people subscribing to?:
World news 52%
National news 52%
Entertainment 34%
Sci/tech news 32%
Weather 31%
Local news 31%
Blogs 23%
Sports 22%
Games 20%
Music or video 15%
Podcasts 11%
Photos 6%
(I left out some mid-level categories)
Podcasting
By contrast, use of podcasting is much smaller. The researchers looked at uptake of the 13-month-old new audio form and found:
28% of users are aware of podcasting
72% were unaware of it
2% of the online populace used podcasts
98% were non-users
Conclusions
The study says, “To position RSS among mainstream Internet users, it is essential to effectively communicate the benefits of RSS (ease, convenience, access to information of interest). Internet users do not understand how to use the XML button, how to actively seek out RSS feeds, or even what the terms RSS means. Instead, they need a simple interface where they can choose the information and content that interests them. This is where personalized start pages and browser-based experiences can help move RSS into the mainstream.”
JD Lasica, founder of Inside Social Media, is also a fiction author and the co-founder of the cruise discovery engine Cruiseable. See his About page, contact JD or follow him on Twitter.
Leave a Reply