REVISED Edition (I wrote the first edition in a bad mood)
RSS is a failure as a consumer-facing technology. That’s right, despite the fact that you can’t live without Google Reader, RSS is an utter, horrible Kin-tastic failure. You should be embarrassed to use it. Your usage of RSS makes you look as outdated as a dude rocking a Rio Diamond 600 for his MP3 player. (Hopefully you can tell at this point that I am being tongue-in-cheek.)
I put RSS in the same ranks as the JooJoo, Palm Foleo and Clippy. No, strike that. RSS is a worse failure than Clippy. Clippy was ambitious. Clippy was designed to possess human-like intelligence. Now’s that a goddamn challenge! RSS was designed to tell users when a website has been updated. If that’s not a fucking simple task, I frankly don’t know what is.
RSS has failed us. How do I know? Normal people have never heard of RSS. FAIL. I don’t need to actually execute a $1,000,000 marketing research survey to tell you the results. RSS users are hairy-ass, geeky tech dudes. RSS hasn’t crossed the canyon because it’s afraid it’ll get sunburnt if it steps outside of a temperature controlled server room.
Really Simple Syndication–if it’s so simple why do I need to email my family to tell them when I wrote a new post on one of my blogs. If it’s sooooooo simple that six year old cats can use it why did I spend a Saturday morning wasting my time installing an email subscription feature on this blog? (BTW, MailChimp seems to be the best solution I have found so far and it still is 1000x too complex to install on a blog for that purpose.)
The time, my friends, has emerged for something to replace RSS. Something that works. Something that will climb that Mount Everest of engineering marvels: letting me know when a website has been updated. And that chosen technology will be so utterly radical both women and men will use it.The ideal solution should making sharing news and following a website both easy and natural. Users shouldn’t have to deal with an RSS unread count that regularly exceed 1,000+ (useless) or be bothered with understanding the differences between HTTP and RSS (complicated). All a user should have to say is “Yes, please!” If it’s not that simple, it will fail.
#1 by braker1nine on July 13, 2010 - 3:18 am
While I don't think RSS is anything spectacular, it seems your only knock against it is women don't know what it is. By that argument, I'd argue that driving skills are dead… :)
#2 by Thomas Loverro on July 13, 2010 - 3:26 am
I am using women as an approximation for “normals” since so many of the men I know work in the tech industry in startups, VC, marketing etc. but few of their wives do. RSS has yet to reach mass adoption. In other words, it still suxxx :-) I really do hate using it and seeing my Google Reader unread count hit 1,000+. I also hate how hard it is for me to get my non-technical friends and family to stay up to date on my blog. They read and understand how to use email but not RSS. That is RSS's fault.
#3 by Unsubscribe on July 13, 2010 - 8:41 am
Thanks for helping me figure how I was going to trim the number of RSS feeds I have.
You truly are a servant of mankind.
#4 by Guest on July 13, 2010 - 11:30 am
What an ignorant post. You only have to look at the number of websites displaying RSS logos and browsers now with built-in RSS feed detection to realised that RSS use is INCREASING. Sites like FeedBurner direct the user via a link which explains what RSS is, so more people are learning. If you truly believe that RSS is dead then why not put your money where you mouth is and remove the RSS feed from this site.
#5 by kidmercury on July 13, 2010 - 11:43 am
what you are obviously incapable of understanding is that RSS is not a consumer technology, but has many uses on the backend, allowing syndication of data between consumer-facing properties, but not directly to consumers. by this measure, the only failure is your inability to comprehend the true nature of RSS.
#6 by Thomas Loverro on July 13, 2010 - 12:10 pm
The number of sites using RSS does not equal success. In fact, I think it makes RSS look like even more of a failure when compared to the number of users. RSS still has abysmal awareness and usage outside of the tech crowd.
When I say it's dead of course I don't mean it literally died. If you read my article, I am saying it is way too complicated and failed at capturing the public's imagination and usage. Of course it is a good technology and I use it–but that's for me–a huge technophile. My point is RSS has a very simply job and yet after all these years most “normals” don't know what it stands for and I still have to add a “Subscribe by Email” feature to my blog.
#7 by Thomas Loverro on July 13, 2010 - 12:15 pm
I agree with you that RSS has a non-consumer use case, but I do think it was intended to also be used as a consumer technology. Either way, though it is being used as such today. For instance, I think of a blog such as Engadget a a pretty “consumer” website and they have an RSS feed. I have an RSS feed too. My point is that ideally RSS would work with consumer's natural work flows enough that “normal” consumers would love it. Yet I still find myself explaining it to people and sending them emails when my blogs has updates.
#8 by Thomas Loverro on July 13, 2010 - 12:16 pm
If you hate RSS too, you can always subscribe to my blog by email.
#9 by Thomas Loverro on July 13, 2010 - 2:37 pm
Please see my newest post on RSS: http://www.tomloverro.com/2010/07/13/correction...
#10 by Richie de Almeida on July 13, 2010 - 4:08 pm
Hm! Your reason for RSS being a failure is all weak-sauce. How many of your friend's wives could tell you what ECG, OBP or RNA stands for?
If people knew there was a way to be notified of updates to their favorite websites, would they use it?
#11 by Thomas Loverro on July 13, 2010 - 4:18 pm
But were ECG or RNA meant to be consumer-facung, consumer used technologies??? That's the whole point. RSS is supposed to be and should be used by everyone, especially my friends and family who want me to email them when I update my blog, but it's not because they don't understand and aren't aware of RSS. This is a product and market failure. Maybe it's not RSS' fault per se, but something is wrong. There should at least be one RSS client that has capture the public's attention.
And yes, people would use a way of being notified of websites being updated…that need does exist…that's why my friends and family ask to be notified via email–a paradigm which makes sense to them. RSS has yet to make sense to them. Perhaps one day it will, but it has not yet.
Please also see my newest post on RSS.
#12 by Anne Helmond on July 13, 2010 - 5:45 pm
ow gawd, I'm almost afraid to admit that I am female and wrote a chapter on RSS for my dissertation after this dreadful anti-RSS and women are ignorant technology users-rant.
#13 by Anne Helmond on July 13, 2010 - 5:46 pm
ow gawd, I am female and wrote a chapter on RSS for my dissertation which makes me feel even more awkward after this dreadful anti-RSS and women are ignorant technology users-rant.
#14 by Thomas Loverro on July 13, 2010 - 5:55 pm
My point is not that women as a whole don't know tech or RSS. I didn't mean for it to come off like that. I have made an edit accordingly.
My point is that my friends and I (men who work in technology startups) know RSS and use it, but we are the exception. RSS has not crossed the chasm.
#15 by Thomas Loverro on July 13, 2010 - 5:58 pm
Also see my follow up post: http://www.tomloverro.com/2010/07/13/correction...