Newsgator and Feedburner are the two most active companies in the RSS space right now. When either of these companies say anything, I pay close attention. Yesterday Newsgator founder and CTO Greg Reinacker (listen to an interview with Greg Reinacker and executives from other feed readers on TalkCrunch) posted something that everyone interested in the future of RSS should pay attention to - a big roadmap for the company’s near term future.
Newsgator properties (including the Mac NetNewsWire) are the second most frequently used feed readers by TechCrunch subscribers according to Mike’s post on CrunchNotes - behind FireFox. I think the company’s roadmap speaks to the future of RSS syndication in general. What are the most recent innovations at Bloglines? Folding blog search into Ask.com and supporting flash inside the reader. The Newsgator next steps discussed in Reinacker’s post blow those away. I think that these are the features and issues that we’ll see from every other vendor in this space.
Highlights discussed below include:
- recommending feeds
- niche default subscription options
- social networking/comments about feeds
- RSS everywhere - where else can it go?
- feeds and podcasts by phone
- advertising, enterprise and private label possibilities.
Here’s my summary of and thoughts on the roadmap points.
- Reinacker says there are loads of features planned for the free online version of Newsgator, including “more interactive feed discovery mechanisms (based on the larger community of users and their subscriptions).” Bloglines leverages its users’ subscriptions heavily to eliminate blog search spam - searching only feeds that Bloglines users have subscribed to excludes junk splog feeds. Reinacker must be alluding here to something more proactive, probably recommended feeds determined by comparing your subscriptions to overlapping subscriptions by other readers. In other words, “you subscribed to WorldChanging, many other readers subscribed to this have also subscribed to GlobalVoicesOnline.” This type of thing is already a best practice in the social bookmarking space - it’s only logical to offer the same in RSS. ShareYourOPML is does this in the geek ghetto.
- “Completely different user interface paradigms (where a user could potentially select from different options, each catering to a different kind of user)”
That likely means describing yourself as a certain type of user and being presented with default subscription options (an OPML file) based on your interests. It will be nice for people to be able to automatically access high quality feeds from more than just a few mass media verticals. I’d love to see an international news focus, an environmental focus, a science focus - why not? Newsgator already has the best OPML support of all the major online feed reader vendors, they should leverage that. - De-emphasizing the term RSS feed. Reinacker says most people don’t want to see the acronym. I’m sure that’s true, and I’m all about making RSS usable by as many people as possible, but talk like that always makes me worry about decreased functionality. I hope that’s not the direction the system moves in.
- Rieneker writes about changing the way people discover feeds, adding value at the point of discovery and participating in a larger ecosystem of users. That’s social networking talk and there’s no reason given Newsgator’s large enterprise user base that feeds themselves can’t be commented on, recommended, etc. Look for Newsgator to present feeds more as objects in and of themselves; objects that contain dynamically updated information but are also identified by a static URL which can be commented on and related to in a wide variety of ways.
- The recently announced Newsgator plug-in for Yahoo! Messenger is highlighted as an example of “Newsgator everywhere”. Every major vendor in the online RSS reader space has a mobile version already - beyond the browser, the desktop, the mobile device and now IM where else could a feed reader go? What does Reinacker mean when he says that there’s more Newsgator everywhere to come? I can’t think of anywhere.
- Newsgator Mobile for Windows Mobile enabled phones launched recently, but Reinacker says that all java-enabled phones will be able to use Newsgator Mobile soon. Let’s hope it doesn’t choke on a large number of feeds - like Newsgator Online has for months. Reinacker also says the company will be offering mobile audio and video podcasting soon. That will be an important test of the podcast listening by phone paradigm - expected to be big down the road.
- Reinacker says the company has made a major commitment to the Newsgator API and improved analytics. I’ll make small mention of this here, but the implications could be big in terms of third party services. It could also mean more RSS advertising, which could be good or bad for users, depending on how it is implemented.
- On the Newsgator enterprise service, a big chunk of where the company makes its money, Reinacker says “There’s so much activity going on here, I’m not sure I can even do it justice.” Since TechCrunch isn’t an enterprise focused blog I’ll just refer interested readers to the second to last paragraph of Reinacker’s post. He mentions improved portal integration, group clippings (enterprise tagging?) and very small business tools. All to be seen in Japan first, US and Europe later in the year.
- Newsgator Private Label is one of the coolest parts of the Newsgator service. Newsgator MyUSAToday and Newsgator MyNewsweek may not be super exciting themselves, but think of the potential: a hosted community feed reader seeded with feeds selected by topical expert admin. Throw in a unique feed of items tagged as editor favorites on the community’s theme and you have a powerful online portal that’s super dynamic. Stay persistent though, I called the Newsgator sales line a while ago for a price quote on this (didn’t drop any organization names) and never heard back from them. This is big money for Newsgator and unfortunately their roadmap focus exclusively on advertising and PR possibilities for the future - though PR can be a good thing.
RSS is the foundation of almost everything Web 2.0 - isn’t it? It’s what makes blog readership scalable, podcasts subscribable, wiki changes watchable and so much more. If Newsgatgor can succeed in offering the kind of innovative features this roadmap alludes to, without falling into the trap of crass commercialism, Reinacker’s vision could be deeply influential for the future of the medium.
Comments
podcats? can I have one mommy?
No use of the term RSS? I very much agree, but why does Newsgator call its online service “Online RSS Aggregator” on its homepage? I think we’ll go to a situation where every page on the web will have rss, instead of just the frontpage or some main pages. Rss will be used to follow changes and news for any page. Newsgator could come with a service like http://www.feedyes.com to do this.
Deemphasizing the term “RSS feed” doesn’t mean less functionality, it means that they’re just not interested in turning feeds in the next Xerox or Kleenex. Which is a good thing, because referring to Atom feeds as “RSS” seems particularly weird.
Good, interesting post and there are other more focused companies like Offertrax quickly moving down this path.
Very interesting analysis. I really like the idea of Newsgator Private Label. I work with Portals every day and I can really see this as a step in the right direction for content management.
Why should anyone listen to what Newsgator says?
Bloglines lets you read your feeds on your mobile phone and PDA =for free=, and I thought that mobile data devices were supposed to be “the future”…
one other place for Newsgator to go is onto an iPod — would be a great way to read RSS feeds on the go.
I have a slightly different interpretation…
“more interactive feed discovery mechanisms (based on the larger community of users and their subscriptions)” - new feature that lets me see what other people I don’t know or care about read.
“Completely different user interface paradigms ” - more checkboxes, less tables.
“De-emphasizing the term RSS feed” - by introducing the term ‘feed trough’. coincidentally they will also be re-emphasizing the term OPML…
“What does Reinacker mean when he says that there’s more Newsgator everywhere to come?” - well clearly he means they will use larger fonts and port to Xbox, PSP, and Commodore 64 platforms
“says that all java-enabled phones will be able to use Newsgator Mobile soon” - this is huge, that way all the wannabes with their incredibly difficult to use Razrs can push even more buttons every day just to do simple tasks…
“RSS is the foundation of almost everything Web 2.0 - isn’t it?” - nope, it’s egos, pure and simple. RSS is just an enabler.
Obviously I have much less subscribers than TechCrunch, but I’ve found much different percentages for the different readers, at least according to FeedBurner.
BlogLines accounts for a full 50% of total readers on my personal feed. (The numbers are slightly different for my main aggregated feed on Slashstar, but not accurate as I just redirected there today). Newsgator properties - Outlook, Online and NetNewsWire- are a mere 14%. Of that slice, the VAST majority subscribe through the Online Edition (which I should mention is free). Also, that’s including me, since I subscribe myself through outlook edition. RSS Bandit, Rojo and SharpReader all account for more readers than Newsgator Outlook.
I’m not sure exactly how accurate the numbers are from FeedBurner, but I would imagine they’re pretty close.
That said, I do think it would be wise to move away from the RSS moniker. Syndication, subscription and feed seem to be catching on and more accurately describe what’s really going on here. RSS is a terrible term because it couples the importance and role of this type of technology with a specific implementation (which is perhaps the biggest reason I deplore the term AJAX, as I discussed on my site - http://elfurl.com/qqkhf).
I’ve tried Newsgator, and despite the spiffy ajax coolness, I prefer Bloglines. I like that in Bloglines I can scroll down the posts in the right frame, while the left frame doesn’t move. That simple user interface difference makes all the difference to me. If Newsgator actually had that feature, as an optional choice or not, I’d consider switching, but for now Bloglines has my loyalty.
My main concern about NewsGator has to do with the changes that they slipped into the Mac RSS reader, NetNewsWire, which they acquired from developers Ranchero Software. The 2.1 release - without any fanfare or, indeed, so much as a mention in the README file - now redirects all feed requests through NewsGator’s servers. This allows them to offer NewsGator synchronization but it has some drawbacks (can’t access RSS sources on intranets, new items don’t show up until NewsGator’s own spiders have fetched the feed etc). It’s also always somewhat worrying when a company inserts itself between a user and a data source: NewsGator’s intentions may be pure as the driven snow, but the potential for abuse is there.
It turns out that if you switch off sync’ing through the Preferences panel, NetNewsWire goes back to the old behavior (i.e. accessing feeds directly), which is good. Kudos to NewsGator for leaving that option open, but I’d be a little happier if they’d taken the time to spell out all the implications of their new features in the NetNewsWire 2.1 release notes.
One place that Newsgator can go is onto blogs. The sole reason I keep a Bloglines account is to make it easy to populate a blogroll that integrates with my feedreader. That is, a couple of clicks populates both the blogroll and my feedreader.
I use NNW for reading feeds, though, and the Bloglines integration leaves something to be desired. It’d be sweet if Newsgator would move that direction.
I prefer something less centralized like MonkeyChow for reading feeds. My using your own web based service, you’re not constrained by whatever commercialization WILL eventually befall Newsgator, Feedburner, and Bloglines as we pass out of the golden age of the Internet. BTW, we’re looking for volunteers to provide translations for internationalization.
http://www.monkeychow.org
What?! Remove an acronym?
What’s next? Building web browsers into operating systems?
Acronyms are the basis for our knowledge. If we don’t have acronyms we’ll all be out of work!
You’re already crossing the line by building web browsers into feed readers. I suppose next you’ll want people to use their operating system and surf the web without know they’ve switched apps. Where will this lead?
If I ever want my clients learning how to consume web services, I’ll take a month (or year) and teach them how. That’s how it gets done!
What happened to minor versions of RSS? Let’s get back into minor versioning. Maybe something like RSS 2.113.12 (only works for OSX and Opera 1.51?) and for God’s sake, stop trying to make everything work together!
Some of us enjoy using a different app for each file format / encoding and DTD chosen by the CREATOR. How am I suppose to justify my SME existence without acronyms?
There’s waay too much thought going into this NOIR (Network of Online Information and Resources) you call so succinctly call, “the WEB”.
“De-emphasizing the term RSS feed. Reinacker says most people don’t want to see the acronym”
Yes, to my understanding RSS is a feed format/protocol, like Atom… I guess what we need is a better. more specific (more marketable?) term than “feed”…
Nice post… I think RSS is to become the most widely used technology in the coming years…however i do not think it can get widely adopted if thew term wont be changed to something more understandable for average Joe
It’s became quite boring … everywhere rss. It seems like everyone will be spending 12 hours per day reading some news … what for ?
antyki
Maybe as soon as those new “display paper” will arrive to market we’ll buy just a one piece of magazine and thanks for RSS we’ll be able to read what we want to read.
http://www.antykwariacik.pl
People are subscribing to so many feeds this will become hard to handle
I think RSS is overrated.
Nice site. RSS works, but eventually, it seems lacking and there is still somthing to be said for looking for something you want, and finding something else along the way. I was looking for Pallet Racks, and end up reading about other topcs.
http://www.pallet-rack-system.com/
This is old news, but people seem interested in it. But as Kaitlin said, it’s a bit OR.
http://www.willa-holland.info
Who’s Willa Holland anyway?
Notice taken. Thank you.
A dinosaur pics site.
RSS or NBA, the one thing I know is that Andrew Bynum is going to be an All-Star very soon.
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