When eMarketer last looked at Really Simple Syndication (RSS) in March, the little-used technology had caught the interest of marketers eager to use it as an end run around spam filters.
Since then, more data have been released suggesting that RSS is...a little-used technology with which marketers hope to make an end run around spam filters. Research by Media Buyer Planner and Workplace Print Media shows that merely 2% of US employees subscribe to RSS feeds, and only 9% know what such feeds are.
This is the same as RSS feed knowledge by US adult Internet users overall as of May-July 2005, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
Ongoing low awareness and usage of RSS is mirrored in Marketers' use of the channel. According to Jupiter Research, in a study commissioned by CheetahMail and BtoB magazine only 8% of US e-mail marketers used RSS as of June 2006.
This low actual usage by e-mail marketers belies more widespread interest in the technology. GfK NOP, in a study commissioned by Epsilon Interactive, found that nearly a third (32%) of US marketers were either "interested" or "very interested" in advertising via RSS.
So what will it take for more US Internet users, both at home and at work, to adopt RSS? As with many other PC applications, bundling RSS software with new versions of operating systems and Internet browsers is the most likely path to mass adoption for RSS. With both Microsoft Windows and Apple OS 10.5 set for release during Q1 2007, there is a fresh chance for computer users to be introduced to RSS. Internet browsers may be updated even sooner and more often to include RSS browsing. What is less realistic is to expect the average PC user to download a separate RSS-reading application. It is one thing to expect browser users to import RSS feeds from their existing list of favorites. It is another to expect them to learn about the technology on their own, and use it within a separate application. This is doubly true for advertising — even opt-in e-mail — as it is with news.