Fascinating post on Topix.net about RSS reader popularity.

RSS Usage of Topix.net by Feed Reader We've been measuring on-site vs. off-site story clicks for a while, and have noticed a steady increase in the number of users who are consuming Topix.net newsfeeds via RSS. Taking the last week's logs shows our RSS usage at 12%. Recently we instrumented our feeds to track story clicks per client. This is a better measure of actual use than simply counting RSS feed fetches, since it measures user clicks on stories in our feeds rather than robot activity.

Client Usage
Newsgator 29%
Feedster 24%
MyYahoo 20%
Intravnews 4%
Netnewswire 4%
Pluck 3%
Sharpreader 3%
Feedreader 2%
Feeddemon 2%
Firefox 2%
Sunrise 1%

Caveats: this is only measuring Topix.net feed usage, so extrapolation to overall market share is probably not sound. Additional information.

FeedForAll is scheduled for final release early next week if you are currently using the beta version, be sure to email the FeedForAll webmaster to request a coupon. All beta testers will receive a discount for when they purchase the registered version.

FeedForAll is an easy to use RSS feed creation tool, that allows users to easily edit and publish feeds.

FeedDemon is a desktop RSS news reader. It is in fact the one that I use every day. I'm eager to see what new enhancements have been included in the beta release. A mention of favicons has me curious.

If you have comments about the beta be sure to post to the Bradbury Software Beta forum. This feedback is critical to developers and will often help shape the direction of future enhancements.

Submit your RSS news feed to StepNewz. StepNewz has a number of related features including:

• Read the latest news, articles, blogs, job offers, scientific papers,...
• Manage your news feeds in your personal account
• Send interesting news feeds or articles to friends and colleagues.
• Display any News feed on your own site using simple and short HTML code

Blogging for Kids - Children love having an audience. The instant recognition and approval that comes from a crowd just can't be beat. Employing blogs to help develop good spelling habits, grammar skills, and develop a love for writing at a young age is an innovative concept that has potential.

New RSS-Publishing List for publishers. The list is focussed on marketing/publishing/operational issues rather than hardcore tech stuff. Meaning that coding issues, and dispuates over the merits of RSS vs. Atom are not the focus ;-) If you wish to participate in the list and receive emails of posts simply subscribe by sending and email to: rsspublishing-subscribe@topica.com

A recent misunderstanding with Microsoft's feeds using excessive bandwith has prompted discussions focused on users need to improve the handling of RSS feeds.

Here is a quote
"One developer said newsreader developers should be encouraged to support features of RSS that allow greater control over the timing of feed retrieval. Another developer brought up the importance of having more sophisticated traffic management tools." more from the article

RSS or 'Really Simple Syndication' is not just for Blogs and News sites. Every website can benefit from this newly popular technology. The term 'syndication' is what throws a lot of people off the track. Syndication is like news articles, isn't it?
read the article

Submit your RSS feeds to the new RSS directory at TheFeedSpot. Feeds can be easily searched, and they are categorized in a directory structure similar to Yahoo in the early days.

The directory still needs to be populated but it generally has a very nice look, and new feeds are "announced" via an rss feed.

Many webmasters are struggling to find fresh, innovative content while other savvy webmasters have realized the potential hidden within RSS and are adopting the technology at a maddening pace. By utilizing RSS, webmasters can tap numerous free content sources with very little effort. RSS truly is a webmaster's key to free content. more on Syndicated Content

FeedForAll posted a very cool graph showing how daily rss feed updates can significantly increase a website's traffic. The Alexa graph shows the detailed traffic surges when the webmaster began updating the website's rss feed daily. Prior traffic spikes correspond with intermittent feed updates. The graph is a clear statement as to why all webmasters should use RSS.

Feedster has teamed up with washingtonpost.com to provide opinion and up-to-date commentary about the presidential debate from political and election bloggers at debate.Feedster.com

The election is less than 3 weeks away, but the polls are open for voting for The Best Blogs - Politics & Elections 2004 Readers' Choice Awards. Votes will be accepted until 11:59 am EST, October 15th. Nomination categories include Best Rant, Democratic Party Coverage, Republican Party Coverage, Campaign Dirt, Inside the Beltway, Outside the Beltway, International, Class Clown, Most Original and Most Likely To Last Beyond Election Day.

Surfpack gathers up information from your favorite web resources into a dynamic HTML page, which then presents it in whatever form or shape you might like - favorite URL links, newsfeeds and even entire web pages!

SurfPack is more than a news aggregator incorporating web pages, RSS feeds and content into a unique personalized startpage.

Yahoo Inc. wants to join the advertising market for XML syndication feeds, a top company executive said here on Wednesday, raising the prospect for a greater adoption of sponsored links within news feeds.

What this will do to the emerging standard is unknown. Hopefully the threat of ad enabled feeds will not stall the adoption of RSS.

New site: Blog Connection. Premier resource for all things related to blogs. Blog Connection is your source to connect to the blogging world. The site contains all types of information related to blogging! Blogs are the latest craze in communication

Personal Blog - share your thoughts and ideas with the world. Create an online journal to communicate

Business Blog - another way to keep in touch with customers, suppliers or prospective customers. Announce new products, feature tips, or post a jobs opportunities. Post product manuals and newsletters.

Photo Blog - create an online photo album and photographic art collections. Share photos with family, friends and colleagues.

Family Blog - help your family stay in touch. Post family news and information so everyone feels connected.

Community Blog - post team schedules, meeting updates, and information for community members.

Whether a blogger's focus is to communicate with customers or just to have fun, they have begun looking at ways to earn revenue from their blogs. The most popular ways for bloggers to earn some added cash for their pet projects are: read more about Bloggers Cashing In .

A much-hyped concept for sure, and a goldmine if it works. But can RSS help bridge the gap to customers more effectively than existing methods such as email and newsletters, not to mention good old-fashioned direct marketing?

In some cases, the answer is yes. One particular application that springs to mind is the natural synergy between the timely dissemination of information that RSS enables and the emergence of the on-demand software deployment model. In the on-demand world, some solution providers choose the model of incremental, ongoing implementation of new functionality in their on-demand systems. More of the Article...

We've just added an interesting article about SharedRSS to the RSS article directory. The article discusses a new service that brings the benefits of RSS syndication to all those who publish websites, but who add new material too infrequently to warrant having their own RSS feed.

CNET recently took steps to educate surfers about RSS. CNET developed a step by step tutorial explaining how RSS is used. The tutorial clearly explains the benefits of RSS how you can use it to improve productivity.

More on CNET's Tutorial

I found a really interesting article detailing how the evolution of XML and RSS has progressed. Initially heavily supported by Microsoft, its rather ironic that Yahoo is now bringing attention to the standard.

Here is a quote from the article:
"In other words, thanks to blogs, XML -- in the form of RSS -- has finally arrived. This real XML revolution, though, is nothing like the stolid, corporate, rather dull affair that was first predicted. (If you liked database algorithms, you'd have loved XML.) Instead, it has a grassroots, quirky, somewhat antiauthoritarian cast to it."

"And note the irony of it being Yahoo, rather than the original XML evangelist, Microsoft, that is out in front with RSS readers -- though Microsoft says it will soon be adding similar abilities to its MSN site."

More on RSS; The Next Big Thing

There is a really fascinating interview with the founder of Blogger, Evan Williams. Evan discusses working with Google and the trial and tribulations of being an entrepenaur. Evan is leaving Google and moving experiencing a little more "life". Before deciding what his next venture will be.

Take a look at Evan's blog to understand his move.

While RSS was initially used for news headlines the usage has expanded and businesses have embraced the technology as a new communication medium. Take a look at this display of innovative way specific industries are using rss to communicate.

If you know of unusual ways rss feeds have been used to communicate a message let us know!

A free online RSS reader is hitting the market. Take a preview of the latest browser based feed reader. RSS4U's technology preview can now be seen.

Yahoo's public embrace of the RSS content syndication format took a major leap forward with the release of a revamped My Yahoo portal seeking to introduce the technology to mainstream consumers.

The mega portal on Monday released a sneak peek into a site overhaul that promises to take RSS (define) to the masses by simplifying the use of the technology on the personalized service and allowing the creation of RSS feeds from search queries. More Information

NewsGator on Wednesday announced a co-marketing agreement with Six Apart Ltd., one of the leading makers of Weblog software, and integration of subscription information from its Web-based aggregation service with FeedDemon, a leading Windows desktop reader. More Information