Google Takes on RSS; A Simple Fix
Having been focused on RSS-based tools for the last few years, I often take a few minutes during a presentation or meeting to discuss what the acronym really means. Anyway you go about it, when you call it Real Simple Syndication, you can’t help but wonder who named the technology that, because for most it’s anything but simple. Actually, it’s not so much the fault of the technology, but rather the implementation in its earlier days, which often forced users to see a screen full of funky looking code if they didn’t have the right software.However, despite poor implementation, which was probably pre-mature for the general public, RSS is quite a powerful tool. Now, if you’re reading this and haven’t quite figured it out yet here’s my definition – RSS is a dynamic bookmark. So whereas we used to bookmark a site that we liked, one would have to proactively re-visit the website and manually browse for updates, with RSS those newest updates are simply pushed to the platform of your choice. That could mean you get the latest news, updates, or stories via a customized Portal such as My Yahoo, iGoogle, or via any number of desktop based programs.
The irony with RSS is that perhaps some of its benefactors, such as Podcasting, have actually faired better and become more mainstream than RSS itself. Well, now enter Google, who purchased Blogger (See Story) in 2003, and it looks like they have a solution, which will very simply rebrand RSS and make it more useful for the general public. As ReadWriteWeb points out, perhaps taking the lead from sites like Twitter and Facebook, Google will soon rebrand and introduce the “Follow” feature to make it easier for web audiences to do just that follow their favorite blogs.
For a technology that we’re certainly familiar with here, this is a story that we’ll certainly continue to Follow here on The MediaBackpage.
On the Web:
In today’s ever changing and complex media landscape it is my belief that our audiences increasingly have very unique and different media habits. That said, it makes communicating for both traditional outlets, as well as organizations somewhat more challenging and more avenues are needed to reach the same audiences that used to be accessible via traditional methods. However, while in many instances we’re talking about delivering content in an entirely new formation, I think that there are some largely untapped methods for using new venues to deliver traditional content. Specifically, there’s a little known fact that RSS/Podcasting technology can allow for the delivery of PDF documents to subscribers.
As the clock ticks toward 6 PM people around the country are lining up at their local Apple and AT&T stores to pick up the hotly anticipated iPhone. It’s a pretty amazing phenomenon that people in this day and age would line-up for a product that they haven’t even seen in person, or touched. That aside, personally, I think that there are two story lines to this launch that are important for today’s media landscape: the changed social experience and the increased opportunities for Podcasting. 
At first I thought my cable went out – no really – I mean it wouldn’t be the first time that my Time Warner Cable failed at an incredibly important moment (it went out right before the first pitch of Opening Night baseball earlier this year) but to go out right as Tony Soprano bid his farewell, come on! Well, I guess like many of you once I realized that my cable was working quite fine – I just scratched my head and wondered what had just happened.
Remembered for its once youthful promise of delivering a wide variety of content to listeners coast-to-coast; for its sales pitch of over 100 channels; music for and from every generation; for its false promises of “commercial free radio” (19 public service announcements an hour don’t count as commercial free); and its promise of providing a venue free of the traditional regulations and limits that accompany traditional broadcast media.
Archive Your Content – As you produce new materials, continue to keep your old podcasts live so that you can reference future audiences to the existing media that you have created. This will allow you to continue sharing past programs with new listeners/viewers in the future, which also means continued exposure for those topics, guests, and materials covered in your previous shows.
The press releases and headlines started emerging yesterday as Apple officially announced that it had sold over 100 million iPods. For any product that is a milestone, let alone one that has only been on the market for five years and has played a major role in dramatically shifting the modern media landscape.
Lesson 6 - It’s About Time: Perhaps equally as important to make your podcast work is to keep it succinct. While there is no exact science most podcasts can probably express their key points in a period of 6-8 minutes, which is recommended. In some instances, for more involved topics there are two main strategies that can be deployed: the first its to simply develop a longer, show with distinct segments that runs somewhere in the ballpark of 18-20 minutes. Alternatively, more involved content can simply be broken down into shorter, smaller, manageable pieces that are all a part of the same feed.