"There are some RSS directory sources out
there, but its still hard to find them. Compare this
with the built-in news group searching features found in
all newsreaders and youre starting to see how this is a
not so easy task for a newcomer."
I agree wholeheartedly. The first weblog directory site
that releases an API for aggregator developers (thereby
enabling them to include a decent search function) will
gain huge mindshare, and will aid the adoption of RSS in
the process. Feedster, Technorati, are you reading this?
Syndic8 already offers an API - we use it as part of
Awasu :-)
Non-techies are a group of people we have specifically
set out to cater for so we've put a lot of time into the
installer and online help and support. We also present
them with "channel packs", that is,
sets of channels in various areas of interest to help
them get started.
But I'd have to agree that the hardest thing is
persuading people the value of it and to give it a go.
Even techies :rolleyes: :-)
Roy,
This is why BottomFeeder has feed building wizards for:
Amazon
Feedster
Blogdigger
Google
Headline News Service
Yahoo News Service
and does auto-discovery to syndic8
Works very nicely....
I agree - the options for seamless access and
utilization of RSS content by non-technical information
workers is almost non-existent.
We've experimented with using Microsoft Office Research
Services for delivering a rich search experience for RSS
content sources. We do this by creating virtual RSS
respositories (SmartSpaces) that also provide
transformations to MOSTL (Smart Tags) and ORS (Office
Research Services). Users simply subscribe to a research
service through any Microsoft Office 2003 application
and then begin to "discover"
information that flows through the RSS collection for
which the service is based.
I believe RSS will achieve rapid adoption at
approximately the point in time when we stop calling it
RSS. ;-)