5 ms·

Even before it's demise, a lot of content publishers were only publishing headlines and abstracts via RSS, with the intent to drive clicks to hosted articles.

Even before it's demise, a lot of content publishers were only publishing headlines and abstracts via RSS, with the intent to drive clicks to hosted articles. The inability to publish ads inline RSS ultimately killed it. If and when the news bundling model re-emerges, something like RSS will gain favor again.

coldtea 9y ago
>The inability to publish ads inline RSS ultimately killed it. Huh? There's no such inability.
- OJFord 9y ago
  GP probably meant targeted ads, beyond just 'well if you like this feed,'...
  - oliwarner 9y ago
    You could have a identifiable feed URL. Static, personalised ads that most feed readers wouldn't block. And in terms of technology, there's nothing stopping you sticking an iframe or script block in your feed. It comes back to what the reader will allow. Origin really doesn't matter too much.
    - JD557 9y ago
      If you use a web reader, I think you don't even need an unique url if your ads are static images. Just request an image from your server and use the user cookie for recommendations
jojoo 9y ago
> Even before it's demise, a lot of content publishers > were only publishing headlines and abstracts via RSS, > with the intent to drive clicks to hosted articles. yes, but that can be helpful as well: spiegel online (biggest german news site) has feeds for every subtopic; for an example for every sport an own feed. i subscribe to ~20 of this subtopics and i'm sure i will never miss an article about one of that topics.
JoshMnem 9y ago
> The inability to publish ads inline RSS ultimately killed it. Google (partly) killed it (by pulling people into Google Reader and then killing Google Reader). Most (all?) news sites still offer RSS feeds.
- dade_ 9y ago
  I wonder how many blog sites have a large number of RSS users and don’t even know they have an RSS feed. Most Wordpress sites have an RSS feed at ./feed, but many of the sites I follow don’t actually have an RSS link offered as an option.
  - JoshMnem 9y ago
    I wonder if Firefox could help fix the problem by putting RSS/Atom discovery into the browser in a prominent way.
    - breischl 9y ago
      Don't they have that already? I remember it being a prominent feature for browsers ~10 years ago. Heck, even Outlook had a feed reader - still has it I think, though it's always sucked.
      - JoshMnem 9y ago
        Firefox used to show a custom page when an RSS feed was displayed, but it doesn't seem to work any more. Edit: it didn't seem to work earlier, but is working now after I added the RSS subscriptions button.
    - robin_reala 9y ago
      It’s there, pick Customise from the menu and drag the RSS icon into the bar. But they’re not interested in actively working on it – suggested features like hiding it instead of greying it out based on feed presence are closed due to a lack of interest. I think ideally they’re want it to be an extension.
0x445442 9y ago
Yep, most of the centralized web is a massive direct marketing platform.

coldtea 9y ago

>The inability to publish ads inline RSS ultimately killed it. Huh? There's no such inability.

OJFord 9y ago
GP probably meant targeted ads, beyond just 'well if you like this feed,'...
- oliwarner 9y ago
  You could have a identifiable feed URL. Static, personalised ads that most feed readers wouldn't block. And in terms of technology, there's nothing stopping you sticking an iframe or script block in your feed. It comes back to what the reader will allow. Origin really doesn't matter too much.
  - JD557 9y ago
    If you use a web reader, I think you don't even need an unique url if your ads are static images. Just request an image from your server and use the user cookie for recommendations

jojoo 9y ago

> Even before it's demise, a lot of content publishers > were only publishing headlines and abstracts via RSS, > with the intent to drive clicks to hosted articles. yes, but that can be helpful as well: spiegel online (biggest german news site) has feeds for every subtopic; for an example for every sport an own feed. i subscribe to ~20 of this subtopics and i'm sure i will never miss an article about one of that topics.

JoshMnem 9y ago

> The inability to publish ads inline RSS ultimately killed it. Google (partly) killed it (by pulling people into Google Reader and then killing Google Reader). Most (all?) news sites still offer RSS feeds.

dade_ 9y ago
I wonder how many blog sites have a large number of RSS users and don’t even know they have an RSS feed. Most Wordpress sites have an RSS feed at ./feed, but many of the sites I follow don’t actually have an RSS link offered as an option.
- JoshMnem 9y ago
  I wonder if Firefox could help fix the problem by putting RSS/Atom discovery into the browser in a prominent way.
  - breischl 9y ago
    Don't they have that already? I remember it being a prominent feature for browsers ~10 years ago. Heck, even Outlook had a feed reader - still has it I think, though it's always sucked.
    - JoshMnem 9y ago
      Firefox used to show a custom page when an RSS feed was displayed, but it doesn't seem to work any more. Edit: it didn't seem to work earlier, but is working now after I added the RSS subscriptions button.
  - robin_reala 9y ago
    It’s there, pick Customise from the menu and drag the RSS icon into the bar. But they’re not interested in actively working on it – suggested features like hiding it instead of greying it out based on feed presence are closed due to a lack of interest. I think ideally they’re want it to be an extension.

0x445442 9y ago

Yep, most of the centralized web is a massive direct marketing platform.