Donnerstag, 15. April 2004

Sites I Wish Offered RSS Feeds. While RSS feeds are currently popular with weblogs and many news sites, they aren't yet commonplace on many other kinds of sites that could benefit from them.

I've just created a list of some Web sites I regularly consult for my professional work and personal interests that I wish offered some kind of RSS feed. I've described how each could specifically be using RSS to offer unique value to its online audience. I'll be updating this list periodically, and will announce developments here in CONTENTIOUS.

RSS is definitely not just for announcing news stories or weblog items. You can use it to announce ANY kind of information that gets updated periodically. In Overlooked RSS Opportunities I enumerated several kinds of content that would be perfect to announce via RSS feed.

I'm currently contacting these sites using my form letters (announced yesterday) to request that they start offering RSS feeds, and to give them resources for getting started. These form letters are free for anyone to use:
[~] General RSS request form letter (for anyone to use for any site)
[~] Special version for journalists

(Current list of sites that really should offer RSS feeds...) [Contentious Weblog] 9:43:28 PM   trackback [] 

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Dialup Users REALLY Should Use RSS Feeds.

I'm writing to you today from my cozy one-room cabin in the mountains west of Boulder, Colorado. Yesterday, I finally had a phone line installed so I can work from up here, which means I get to enjoy my cabin a lot more than in previous years. (Oh, admit it, you'd do it too if you could...)

However, this does mean that I'm forced back to the painfully slow world of dialup Internet access, at least part of the time. Yes, I've definitely been spoiled badly by having wireless broadband at my home office. But now I get to see how most of the world gets around the Net [^] a very useful reality check.

Just to put dialup in context, even in the Net-hungry US the vast majority of Internet users primarily use dialup connections. According to a March 10, 2004 Wired News article, nationwide only 36 percent of Net users have broadband. I don't have the global statistics handy, but I'm certain that throughout the world the vast majority of Net users are on dialup.

By rejoining the dialup masses (at least part-time), I've realized yet another significant benefit of RSS feeds:

RSS feeds are ideal for dialup users because they can deliver a lot of information using very little bandwidth.

Case in point...

(Full story, with links...) [Contentious Weblog] 9:42:27 PM   trackback [] 

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Feeds Keep Your Site Visible. I couldn't have said it better. Jay Allen's April 1, 2004 weblog entry, "RSS discourages visits!?", brilliantly sums up the core reason why I think that anyone who provides any periodically updated content online SHOULD offer an RSS feed. (I touched on that point in this entry last week.)

Here's my take on Allen's take...

(Full story, with links...) [Contentious Weblog] 9:41:51 PM   trackback [] 

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