Email client: RSS adoption
Is reading RSS feeds in an email client easier for adoption for web users at large, Newsgator have their outlook version, as do Attensa, and IntraVnews.
As everyone knows by now, this is now being adopted in webmail clients like Yahoo! Mail, I also posted a hack of how to read feeds in Gmail, but now Yahoo! is doing this officially (hiccups and all).
(NOTE: I noticed Gmail has a kind of ticker for feeds (Web Clips), very, very light weight)
People consult their email for their latest alerts, news, correspondence…why would they want to also learn another client to read RSS feeds, when they can just have it integrated in a client they already know and live in.
Unless you are a power user or see the great benefits of using an RSS reader (and we all know there are many), the lay person is better off reading feeds within a client they are familiar with…otherwise who knows how long mass RSS adoption will take.
Lets face it, for most people, email is essential for daily business, reading RSS feeds would be a luxury, so these people may never try reading feeds…so incorporating feeds into the email client is giving these people a nudge, what better way to expose feed reading than a tool that people use everyday, they can’t avoid the chance. It’s like the world of RSS is saying lets promote the reading of feeds by integrating it into email clients, this way RSS will be likely to have a greater adoption.
At least this can be step one of mass adoption, step two can be the RSS Reader client.
Some quotes from the Podtech post:
“When you think about that large audience, of folks that feel comfortable in the email environment…we looked at that and said, ‘Well, if our goal is really to bring RSS to the masses, isn’t that where the masses are?’”
“You are integrating into the mail client, because people have their attention there already?”
Also mentions the seamless experience of fowarding posts to your friends via easy contacts access, and dragging posts into folders, and reading a river of news or feeds individually.
Yahoo! has got smarts as when these adopters of RSS start to mature, they may think I need a more robust client to just deal with feeds, and there will be My Yahoo! waiting in the wings.
Others are also excited about RSS adoption in general.
Also check out Yahoo! Alerts, RSS feeds in SMS, IM, or email.
Not that it is new, but this is a great idea that isn’t embraced enough…my RSS Reader is so full that I’ve gone back to email alerts for the real important stuff, reason being is that I’m going to read email everyday no matter for what purpose, whereas I might not read my RSS Reader on a busy work day…also if I want to know about a pressing issue it may be too late to be notified by feed, email, or IM, whereas SMS alert would be preferable (if they don’t supply SMS alert, just convert the feed to SMS).
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