Explaining what RSS is to most people is a bit like explaining baseball’s infield fly rule to casual observers. There is futility in even trying because to get it you have to be more than a casual observer. Similarly, if I was to say to a casual web surfer that RSS is a way to read a website’s content without having to go to the website, it won’t really make much sense because being a casual web user means surfing from website to website.
The good news for anyone confused by just what RSS does is that, according to Forrester Research, you are in very strong company. It seems that adoption of this federated method of content consumption has begun to level off, putting into question assumptions about how most people really do want to ‘consume’ web content. They claim that usage of RSS is only 11% and that only 17% of the 89% still not using it are even interested.
Lifehacker has a short blirb on Forrester’s paper, sparse on details and quick to the point. I found the comments, however, to be highly illuminating. Reading through the threads, I tried to keep score on the points pro for RSS and pro site vists. Here is the breakdown of the 82 different threads at the time I was looking at the post.
Pro RSS
- Saves time
- Increases total amount of information absorbed
- Way to avoid ads
Pro Visiting Site
- Enjoy the look of a site
- Want to see all pictures related to an article
- Want to read comments
- Editorial control of content
- Quality vs Noise
- Limited duplication of information
- Surfing relieves boredom
These are some points I drew from this data.
First, LifeHacker draws a technical crowd with Pro Site Visitors mixed in. It didn’t surprise me that the majority of commenters were pro RSS. I was more surprised by the commenters in the second camp and their diversity of reasons for not using RSS or used it sparingly. If a technical blog like LH has a good sized representation of Pro Site Visitors, it lends anecdotal evidence to the research numbers.
Second, advertisers want Pro Site Visitors. When you visit a website, you have lent your attention to that provider. Those in the second camp are interested in quality over quantity & Signal over Noise. They want the experience of your website and that includes advertising when done unobtrusively. The Pro RSS group is more intent on absorbing data without distraction. Quantity and time are their biggest action items and advertising gets in the way of both.
Lastly, RSS was never the right solution for mass consumption. Have you seen a professional hot dog eating contest? Nathan’s is famous for, during 4th of July in the US, promoting people stuffing hot dog after hot dog into their mouths within a ten minute dash. Anyone ever see this and think ‘Now this here is going to change the way people eat hot dogs forever!’ Fact is, most people are very happy to sit down to a casual lunch of a couple coney dogs with cheese and just enjoy themselves. Slow? yep. Less hot dogs eaten? yep. Am I hungry? You bet! The point is, people don’t always need a new way to do something.
Photo attributed to 96dpi @ Flickr CC