RSS growing pains

I'm relieved to see that I'm not the only one who's still figuring out an easy way to consume content via RSS. I have tried Web-based services (bloglines), a standalone news aggregator (FeedDemon), and browser-based solutions (Firefox) and none seemed to be especially useful. Safari 2.0 seems to be a breakthrough by elegantly incorporating feeds into the browser, a la Firefox, but somehow easier to manage. I have also mentally begun categorizing feeds better, focusing more on blogs and less on RSS feeds from media outlets, which quickly overwhelm with their high volumes.

Jason Preston acknowledges these difficulties, saying that RSS feeds take up a "weird limbo in web-space" which I think accurately captures the RSS gestalt. Preston happens to favor the browser as the RSS aggregator tool, as do I. But there are three other ways to consume RSS feeds--Web-based, plug-ins to email programs (a la Newsgator), or standalone apps. Further, there are strong arguments that the feed IS the content, regardless of where it happens to be consumed. And here's an excellent post by Wired's editor Chris Anderson on how he consumes over 150 RSS feeds and the role bloggers play in filtering content (and coping with information overload).

But, you know, this isn't as easy as it looks. Picking the software. Getting used to it. Picking the right feeds. Judging that fine distinction of how some feeds can act as information filters, whereas others will just clog your aggregator. Organizing your feeds. Constantly battling against information overload. Having yet another thing to check each day.

My colleague Gary Mintchell, who writes an excellent blog on factory automation and technology, pointed out to me that his children are grown and out of the house, ergo, he can sip coffee and comb his feeds every morning whilst I, with my three small children, must race around getting clothes on, making lunches, and dropping kids off at school. Chris Anderson, early adopter that he is, devotes an hour a day to checking out 150+ feeds.

Although I can't keep up with Chris or Gary, I finally feel like I've hit my groove in the RSS content consumption department. This is after 6 months of struggling with different tools, and even different ways to organize my feeds so as avoid information overload. Baby steps compared to Gary and Chris, but a start nonetheless.

As a publisher, I can't wait for the day our readers switch to RSS and we can stop using email.
In fact, some vendors, like SilverPop, are riffing on a synthesis of RSS and email, combining the targeted nature of email with the sure-fire delivery of RSS. As B2B publishers, we desperately need tools like this. But all RSS tools worthless to publishers until the day that most of our readers consume content via RSS.

And that day is a LONG way out.

Just like it took mainstream users about five years to get comfortable with the Web (using Web browsers, sending and receiving email, buying stuff on Amazon), I'd argue that it will take five years before RSS consumption goes mainstream. Even when the tools are mature, there's the simple lag time before people adjust to consuming content this way. Most of our readers will have to struggle the same way I did in understanding how to use these tools and consume content efficiently via RSS. I can't emphasize how a huge adjustment this will be. For people used to the paper periodical publishing and consumption metaphor, RSS is a totally different metaphor. And that's before you throw in mixed modes like audio (podcasting) and video (video podcasting). My head hurts just thinking about it.

Older Web users may never adopt RSS as a way to consume content on a daily basis.

It reminds me of the Internet procurement boom of the late '90s....just because technology enabled B2B portals (a la VerticalNet) to come into existence didn't mean readers changed their procurement habbits overnight. Quite the opposite--to borrow from Woody Allen, they stayed away in droves. The technology was simply way ahead of human nature.

With RSS, so it is again. As liberating as RSS promises to be, there are quite a few obstacles in the way of widespread RSS adoption. Technology, I fear, is the least among them.