Content providers don’t use RSS to its full potential
Peter Cooper recently commented that the majority of users are missing the point of RSS. This is not entirely surprising since the majority of publishers, even those who specialize in online content, are also missing the point of RSS.
High profile online publishers such as Motley Fool, A List Apart and Slashdot all publish feeds, but don’t use them to their full potential.
Most publications allow readers to filter content by viewing specific categories and contributions by certain authors. Why do these categories and authors almost never have their own RSS feeds?
Peter links to Phil Wainewright’s Death of the RSS reader which states that the RSS reader is dead, mostly because
There just isn’t enough time to scan all those feeds any more.
This is to some extent true. On Slashdot in January there were at most three posts a day in the communications category. For the past three days they’ve had at least 20 posts per day on the front page. Slashdot only publishes a feed for their front page which prevents users from following specific topics without their RSS readers getting flooded with unrelated posts.
Another example is Motley Fool contributor Tim Beyers (3 posts per day max). Because his posts are integrated into the fool.com site, which only publishes a front page RSS feed, he has no feed for readers to subscribe to. In contrast, it is much easier to follow writers who publish personal blogs such as Business 2.0 senior writer Om Malik simply because they have their own RSS feeds that don’t include headlines from their entire publication.
When content providers start providing more specific feeds, content consumption over the web will become more efficient and flexible.
On a positive note: Digg.com gets it right.