By Michael Dorausch, D.C.
The current King of all Internet, Google has announced on Friday, another jewel in their crown, with the purchase of Chicago-based company FeedBurner. The Really Simple Syndication (RSS) company, FeedBurner, is a distributor of what is known as syndicated content, typically used with blogs, news and other media websites.
There had been lots of talk online recently that the purchase was expected, which will provide Google with another avenue to deliver their already dominant advertising product, ad words, to more end users. According to what I have read online, the terms of the purchase have not been disclosed yet the rumor is FeedBurner sold for somewhere in the ballpark of $100 million.
I said it over a year ago, RSS will become as popular tomorrow as mp3 is today.
Remember when you could not listen to an mp3 file without installing some sort of software on your computer? It was not that long ago. And yet today, at least in the Windows environment, executing mp3 file formats will likely launch some brand of installed player, providing the end user with an mp3 audio experience.
Up until recently, before upgrades to Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firebox browsers, RSS feeds were likely not readable without the use of some 3rd party RSS reader software technology. That is changing quickly and the pace now will begin to burn at a much greater rate.
According to FeedBurner CEO and co founder, Dick Costolo, more than 430,000 publishers are using RSS technology to provide an estimated 67 million feeds daily to subscribers. Among those publishing RSS feeds online are USA Today, Craigslist, Reuters, the New York Times, and Planet Chiropractic (a FeedBurner client).
According to reports, one of the downsides for RSS publishers had been the inability to include contextual advertising, such as Google Adwords, into RSS content. While some RSS aggregation websites, such as KickRSS.com, have been incorporating adwords into both html and XML versions of the feeds they produce, the technique has not yet become mainstream, and even KickRSS reports using XSLT to “wrap” ads into feeds (not straight XML). Mixing adwords advertising directly into RSS content will make the process a reality for more publishers of the XML based protocol.
To view how RSS is being used in the distribution of chiropractic content, visit these links… 247chiro.com, an hourly updated chiropractic news and blogs RSS aggregation system. Chiropractic Blog Feeds, half a dozen websites delivering RSS in a mix of content.
RSS is being used for news, blogs, classifieds, podcasts, finding lost dogs, and more. Its use will certainly continue to grow, even expanding onto other platforms such as mobile and handheld PDAs. Tomorrow RSS will become to article and blog content what mp3 is to music today.
planetc1.com-news @ 2:51 am | Article ID: 1180777917
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