Warning - this is reality check blog post...
Nielsen/NetRatings today published the results of a study on RSS. It indicates that only one in ten blog readers use RSS. Five percent are on software-based news aggregators and more than six percent use web-based newsreaders to monitor RSS feeds from blogs, the study revealed. This quote, however, is the kicker...
“The majority of respondents to the survey were less familiar with RSS feeds. Among the other respondents, 23 percent understood RSS but did not use it, while 66 percent either did not understand the technology or had never heard of it.”
It sounds to me like Microsoft has the right idea. Someone needs to figure out how to convey that the benefits of RSS are worth overcoming the learning curve. This is not impossible and there is precedent. When it launched, eBay was pretty damn complicated too. Nevertheless, people took the time to learn how to use the service because they understood what the benefits were. No one's cracked the same code yet on RSS, but someone will. There's too much at stake for players like Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, IAC/Bloglines, Newsgator and Apple.
Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Nielsen, Nielsen/Netratings, Statistics, Stats, Study
