Cameron Olthuis

It’s really hard to predict the future of the web, with some many cool new technologies it’s anyones guess which one’s going to be the next big thing. Why does it have to be just one? If it makes your internet experience more enjoyable and efficent you’re all for it right?

One of the technologies I’ve really been getting into lately is RSS. RSS (aka XML), allows you to easily create one or more of our own personal web pages, you decide what information is displayed there by subscribing to RSS feeds. You can use it to get the latest news, weather, sports, blog entries, events, and pretty much anything you can imagine, all on your own personal web page. I use my Yahoo! , it ties right in with my email account so it’s convenient. If you don’t already use RSS I suggest you start, it’s a very effecient way to get all the lastest information you’re looking for in one page.

Lately all sorts of web companies have been offering RSS feeds for all sorts of different things. I just learned that New York Times Job Market (source: Micro Persuasion) offers an RSS feed, if you’re looking for a job you can now track openings as they’re listed on New York Times. No longer do you have to check the New York Times everyday to see if there’s new job listings, the RSS feed will tell you.

RSS really is going to play a big role in the future of the web. It’s definitely one of the next big things to watch that’s taking over the web. Thanks to RSS you’ll soon be able to incorporate most everything you do online into one experience. By allowing you to get all the information you want in one place, it increases effeciency and saves time. Best of all it’s a very easy to use, even for the average person that isn’t computer savvy.

So what does this mean to marketers? I think it means there’s a big need to figure out what products are marketable using RSS. I ‘ve already started working on some for different clients. I believe these will offer a valuable service to our users, and will be things they’ll actually want to use. RSS feeds can really set your company apart, at the same time providing a very valuable service. Don’t go overboard with it though, not everything needs RSS.

I’m certainly looking forward to more companies offering RSS. For example, won’t it be cool when we’re shopping for a certain product on eBay and we can see all the listings as they come in, without having to actually visit eBay. It can get pretty annoying spending the time looking for new listings only to find there aren’t any. What about keeping track of items we’re already bidding on? Now I’m sure someone already offers a eBay software that does this but I’d really like to see these things coming from the actual companies.

I predict RSS will be one of the big things next year, if not THE big thing.

Subscribe to my RSS feed.