The End of the RSS Full Text Free Ride

If had to pick a single technology that changed my life the most this decade it would be RSS. Phones and computers evolve, surely. However feeds, which I started reading in 2003, were a total game changer. Today I read almost 600 of them. In fact I view my entire reading list as a competitive weapon that allows me to help my company and our clients stay head of the curve.

There are two kinds of RSS feeds - full text and summary feeds. This is a topic that's often debated. Many bloggers syndicate the full text of their posts. In some cases, they monetize them by running ads in the feed. Other bloggers are happy to give away their content sans ads to build thought leadership.

Almost every large media outlet, on the other hand, only offers partial text feeds - also with ads. The reason is they want to monetize your eyeballs twice. They get you with one ad impression in the feed itself and then go for even more if/when you click through to read stories.

In the midst of a massive global downturn I suspect that many advertising-supported bloggers will follow in the footsteps of the larger media outlets and pull their full-text feeds. While none of the big tech blogs has done so just yet, the signs are there that they're perhaps feeling pressure.

Take a look at these screen captures from two great blogs in my Google Reader stream. The first one, from CyberNet News, features a giant banner ad at the top of the feed. For a long time ads in feeds, generally speaking, were really small and unobtrusive - no more. The image on the the bottom, from Googling Google, is a sponsored post that appears in the feed.

If online advertising should continue to shrink, RSS ads - which have not been exactly been a big winner - will get cut. And this will lead more ad-supported bloggers to start going the way of partial text feeds. Some, however, will recognize that remaining with full text feeds has its advantages. Further, they might be fearful of alienating their readers as other emerging voices happily offer the same news via a full text format.

I would also keep an eye on corporate bloggers. They almost always syndicate full text and have little to gain from traffic. Full text can build their brands. If corporations continue to become digital curators - which is happening - then they may use full text feeds to compete for attention.