The RSS popularity contest
There was lots of big news in the world of RSS this week, including a report from Yahoo! about usage and trends and the soft launch of Google's web-based Reader tool. The similar vein in all of these stories and events is that the aggregators involved are all fairly easy to use, and are in some cases "invisible" to the end user. Take the My Yahoo! service, for instance. Users have been getting all of their news, sports, and stock quotes there for some time now, and are now able to put blogs and other sources in there - perhaps unbeknownst to them that RSS - Really Simple Syndication - is even behind the action.
That's not to say that "production level" users of RSS aren't also utilizing services like this, but it does raise the question as to whether the software-based readers will have any sort of long term viability. But as platform-based services like NewsGator appear to be proving, it's possible to have your cake (client side software such as NetNewsWire or FeedDemon) and eat it, too (through NewsGator Online).
Up next for toying around with is FeedLounge, which has a pretty awesome looking interface, based on the screenshots. Now, to get invited to the beta...
