Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds are getting more major online service support of late, with Microsoft’s MSN division beginning an early test of an RSS aggregator and Yahoo expanding into mobile news feed access on its personalized My Yahoo service.
These, according to eWeek, show a “growing interest in the RSS news reader market that has largely been dominated by upstart companies providing both desktop aggregators and online services for reading news feeds,”
JupiterResearch senior analyst Gary Stein told the publication that adding news feeds gives the Internet majors a boost toward helping RSS become more accessible to average Netizens who aren’t yet deeply familiar with the technology.
"There are some people who are actively going out and seeking RSS aggregators, but that market is limited," he told eWeek. "But if it comes to them as a tool they're already using, then more people will be using RSS and reading RSS feeds and, to a point, not necessarily know they're doing it."
Part of the dilemma may well be that RSS is a broad term that encompasses XML syndication formats used by bloggers and Web publishers that lets them share new content quickly, eWeek said.
But MSN has begun an experiment with RSS aggregation, after adding RSS to its MyMSN personalized home page service earlier, and launching its search engine last month with a function of turning search queries into RSS feeds, the publication said.
Yahoo has been at it a little bit longer. They were one of the first RSS embracers, offering the My Yahoo aggregation in 2004 and offering links to RSS feeds within their search results, and they kicked it forward earlier this month by bringing RSS headline feeds to Yahoo’s mobile service.
"It seemed like a natural progression to take the power of RSS and let users take it with them and extend it beyond the desktop," said Yahoo senior director of personalization products Scott Gatz to eWeek, adding that My Yahoo overall has millions using news feeds while it increased the number of feeds in its searchable database to 250,000.
