Email vs. RSS (continued)

I first posted on this topic in October 2003 as I was starting to blog.

I posted again in the middle of last year.

And once more in the fall of last year.

I can save you the trouble on clicking on all those links.  I have been saying that RSS is too hard for the average person and that email is still the best way to get your content delivered to your customers, readers, etc.

I bring this up because many of the comments and blog linkbacks on this AOL/Goodmail issue have been saying that it's time to kill email for commercial uses and turn to RSS.

Steve Rubel says:

Bye Bye Email Marketing, Hello RSS

Tris Hussey says in his "end of cost-effective email marketing" post.

As the Yahoo and AOL plans move forward, and expect other companies to follow suit, and more "premium" RSS feeds appearing to replace the traditional e-mail newsletter.

Polarman says in his "email gives way to RSS" post:

Fred, please change the business models from email to RSS.  It's time Email gives way to RSS.  Everything that a email delivered service can do should be done by RSS.

And Steve Gillmor really hammers it home in his "who do you trust" post:

RSS got another big boost today when portals-in-the-headlights AOL and Yahoo? decided they wanted to scrape some vig off of the email stream.

Well I wish I was in charge of the business models on the Internet, but I am not.  And as much as I'd like to see RSS replace email, it's just not going to happen overnight.  RSS has to become brain dead simple to use.

When the soccer moms, myspace kids, construction workers, and grandmothers can use RSS, commercial email will give way to RSS.  Because RSS is a lot better.

But I suspect we've got a ways to go before RSS is truly mainstream.  But it seems like AOL introducing a paid stamps mechanism into the email business model is getting people thinking about a way around that and RSS would be a damn good one.

Comments

[Richard Cunningham]

Windows Vista should give RSS a boost, having it built in. However, it'll take compelling content to drive soccer moms, myspace kids, construction workers, and grandmothers to RSS.
Compelling content they can't get anywhere else.

[Rob Howard]

One of my co-workers forwarded me this post.

This is what Community Server (www.communityserver.org) does. It's a collaborative platform with forums, blogs, file sharing, and so on but most importantly it allows you to access the data in any number of ways: web, email, rss, and NNTP.

Microsoft's intentions with Office 12 and the built-in RSS support will go a long way to pushing up the hill of the tipping point for mass RSS adoption -- for most people the most common application they use is Email. The more that can be done to allow people to bring content to them via RSS or email, the better.

People get email, explaining RSS isn't quite as easy. Another great example: I live on a BlackBerry. I don't care how the data gets to my BlackBerry as long as it gets there. Email is still best for that.

Personally as a software vendor it thrills me to hear that potential competitors are going to try to force their customers into a specific path - as for us, we'll let the customers choose, and then continue to build services around how they want to use the software (and not how we *think* they should).

Rob

[TDavid]

Fred - Richard makes a great point in his comment above. RSS is an additional way to access content and rarely the only way to get to the content. That's the Achille's heel for RSS, that many, many people stil prefer to get their content in the browser.

[Detlev Johnson]

Email is also highly convenient. Not that RSS isn't even more so, but the practice of reading one's email is just a normal part of the day for many people. It is convenient to deliever your content in a way that is in the stream of their daily consumtion.

Email is the primary mechanism by which we publish content to our readers. RSS is an afterthought, and RSS is published (by custom database routine I might add) after the email issue goes out to readers. We publish a dedicated feedback survey, and everyone loves email best. I got a comment that someone said: "great feeds," but that same respondent also marked they are an email subscriber.

Best regards,
-detlev johnson
SearchReturn
(old-school discussion list)

[Gary Wisniewski]

The key to successful RSS take-up by the masses involves something I call "building a technology bridge". What's needed is a way that people already comfortable with a concept (such as email) can become RSS users without any awareness of how or why it's happened, then gradually migrate their thinking into the new world based upon positive motivations.

I'm not talking about email gateways such as those feedburner provides. Rather, I am talking about concepts such as an email *identity* bridge. A way to caplitalize on a broadly known concept (your email identity) to cross the bridge into better subscription content with a new reader interface other than the outdated and unmanagable inbox technology. The new reader interface can be something so simple as a consumer-oriented web service, or can attempt careful integration with email. The details aren't as important as the concept and the "low viscosity" of the solution.

As an example, we manage highly successful mailing lists for entertainment companies like Warner. One thing that is obvious to me is that people understand "their email address". We go to great trouble to protect their addresses, and keep the lists clean and perfect. That's why people use our service.

If there were a way to link people's email identity (NOT their inboxes) to RSS feeds, that would be an adoption bridge.

Let's say one of our clients sent out a regular mail to their consumer mailing list saying "Get more news about your favorite artists using our new blah-blah-blah feed". I know from experience that about 20-30% of the people on these types of lists would try it. Further, assume that the "bridge technology" were a bit smarter than email, not so vulnerable to spam, and provided obviously increased utility.

This is just an example.

Trying to "create new RSS tools" to make things easier will only go so far. RSS is an abstract concept which does not reveal its benefits easily to consumers. Without a bridge technology, it increases the time to adoption immeasurably. Consider how powerful CDs were as a bridge technology for taking consumers into the digital music world. Was it planned that way? Probably not. So, look at an RSS-to-email-identity bridge in a similar fashion.

Building such bridge technologies is hard, and the hardest part is that software builders (more than other engineering disciplines) have a very difficult time relating to the masses, and understanding that sometimes "less is more". Too many RSS tools are evolving UPWARD rather than DOWNWARD. So, doing something like this requires mass market vision. Hard to come by in the online world.

[Alex Pooley]

I agree with this article. RSS is not ready for mainstream adoption as it is. But, do we really care how we're getting our information - private or public - anyway? Whack content on my screen and make it easy to get the info I want. Don't even tell me how you're doing it just put it there!

E.g. Do you care how your snail mail is delivered? The route it took, the method of delivery? I don't. Just give me my mail in a cost effective way, and asap.

It's an ideal situation and would require a shift in paradigm but we'll get there eventually I hope :)

[Richard Brunton]

Totally agree.

I've just talked to one of our biggest Business Divisions within our organisation about RSS and the advantages.

Selling the concept to them was easy, you can gather all your news sources together in one place to read daily, and be told when there are new articles rather than search for them. You can even be told when there are new articles listed on searches of the entire web.

They loved it. Then came the demonstration of how to setup an aggregator and add feeds.

"Do I have to get my email to confirm my new account?" was the first negative response. Then I showed them how to find and add a feed from a website they already visited. Then how to subscribe to a search. Then search blog directories for articles. Then...well already there were shuffles of discontent and distraction.

I doubt they will be using the aggregator come the end of the week.

Unless it's easier for them to find and add feeds then they won't take it on. The feeds need to be transparent. If only we had Opera or Firefox in the workplace!

[bill]

Email vs. RSS you talk about markting , but what about using this for any email :: no more spam :)

[Shannon Whitley]

I've taken the first few steps toward the RSS replacement of email with FeedMail Now! (http://www.feedmailnow.com). Granted, its a little rough around the edges, but I believe I'm getting closer to the bridge that will allow the mainstream to embrace RSS.

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[Articles Tutorials]

I think that rss may be more helpful in passing information. Spam email is taking over and less and less, people respond to hype emails promoting things.

My opinion.

[Paul]

Glad to read such a nice piece of information.

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