blogging 102

Reading time: 4 – 7 minutes Nothing and a whole lot! That’s if Microsoft gets it right. First impressions appear to be very promising and all indications show a much more powerful RSS system, neatly integrated into the next version of Windows. Could this finally mean the ‘coming of age’ for RSS? But what does RSS mean to the average computer user at this moment in time? Will people get RSS? Does Microsoft have an education project on their hands with RSS? Not Really! Does DOS mean anything to you? If you’re like 95% of computer users — probably not much. But that doesn’t stop us from enjoying our computers and fully benefiting from DOS. Sometimes complete ignorance is bless. Unless you’re a techie and such technical stuff makes your heart skip a beat, knowledge of such material is not really required by the end-user. Fortunately, people don’t have to understand ‘HTML’ to enjoy the Internet. Likewise, knowledge of RSS... 

Reading time: 5 – 8 minutes Despite all the hype and fuss surrounding RSS recently, for the majority of mainstream Internet users, RSS still remains a mysterious orange button sitting on your web site. They are totally unaware of this new method of syndicating information on the web. This is not necessarily bad news! For many Internet users are enjoying the benefits of RSS while remaining totally clueless as to its function or how it works. Programs like ‘MyYahoo’ and the RSS empowered Firefox Browser are letting surfers access RSS and enjoy its major benefits without having any or no knowledge of it. In the very near future when Microsoft introduces its new RSS powered Longhorn Browser and operating system – this situation will hopefully continue. Internet users should be able to enjoy all the benefits of RSS without having to know what it is! Users don’t have to know ‘DOS’ or even ‘HTML’ to enjoy the full benefits of the Internet... 

Reading time: 4 – 6 minutes The recent Forrester Research study, which claims that only 2% of online households in North America use RSS, took the internet marketing world by storm. Does this data really mean that marketers can still afford to ignore this channel? Soon after the Forrrester study became public, I received a press enquiery asking whether marketers should be interested in RSS now that so few online adults use it. Is this the correct question to ask? Lets take a look at the bigger picture 1. THE FORRESTER STUDY VALIDITY The Forrester study is just one of those available and cannot be considered as the only relevant study, although it was conducted on a sample of 68,000 households. Jupiter Research estimates RSS penetration at 12% of the American online population, while the latest report from PEW shows that 9% of the American online population has a good idea of what RSS is. An October 2004 PEW study actually estimated RSS penetration at 5%. It is also important to understand...