I had a somewhat random thought the other day … facebook, Google+ and twitter in a sense are partially replacing blogs and RSS feeds. Not entirely but to a degree.
People using rss feed readers for blogs hit a peak or market saturation because using one is a choice and it’s a bit tedious because it IS highly configurable. And because it’s one more thing to keep up with as posts sit out there as unread until you read them or tell the rss reader to “mark all as read.” And without an RSS reader like Google Reader, people tend to be able to consume fewer blogs by visiting site by site.
Facebook / G+ / twitter allow everyone and every business in a sense have a mini blog for events and products and announcements. And because the display is realtime, people tend to read only what is right in front of them and current instead of trying to play catchup to things that are older
No, I’m not saying RSS is dead. That’s far from the truth. It’s just that there are a wide variety of opportunities out there from both a publishing and consumption standpoint.
Also note that influencers still utilize feed readers. I still use Google Reader. There’s no way I could consume as much info as I do without a feed reader.
Related articles:
- 2010 article: http://gigaom.com/2010/09/13/no-rss-is-not-dead-and-neither-are-rss-readers/
- http://scobleizer.com/2007/10/15/how-many-people-use-rss-anyway/