RSS and Internet Marketing

The original concept of RSS came from Netscape (way back in the day), where the intention was to provide a way for users to customise their own homepages with links to websites that were of interest specific to them, similar to bookmarking and favorites websites.

The application of RSS to internet marketing was a new and unexpected development to RSS technology developers. Since readers are given the option to add RSS feeds to their own aggregators, those who are interested in particular products and services available on the internet can now be notified real time. Marketing becomes more specific to interested people and not a hit-and-miss operation.

Medium to big-scale companies who intend to use RSS for marketing their products and services should consider linking up with email account providers, (e.g. Gmail, Yahoo, MSN); networking websites (e.g. Friendster, Multiply, MySpace); websites of newspapers and television network websites (e.g. New York Times, CNN). Smaller companies can also look at networking websites as well as personal blog websites (e.g. Blogspot) and websites of clubs and organizations that would probably make use of their products or services e.g. a fishing supplies store can look for the website of their local fishing club for possible RSS marketing.

Clearly, RSS is an innovation in worldwide web information management as well as online marketíng. We can expect better RSS technology in the not-so-distant future as its popularity increases among users and website owners alike.