Brad, RSS Feeds and Who Benefits from Your Content

Brad is a human barometer for what is hip and happening in the social sphere of the net. I’ve waded through a slew of theories on where he draws this knowledge, and after careful analysis have discovered the source of his wisdom: a perpetually swaying, solar-powered, plastic plant residing on his desk. (It’s cool Brad, your secret’s safe with me.) I believe he acquired this mystical object from a highly advanced robot, who traces its genealogy to Voltron, during Brad’s time in Japan, but I digress…

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve routinely watched in amazement as a small grey box popped up on his computer screen notifying him of a new email in his Gmail box; each time he’s patiently re-explained to me the concept of Gmail notifier. Well this week I finally installed Gmail Notifier, and being the overachiever I am, went a step further and explored another Brad recommendation: Google Reader.

(For those keeping track, yes I just jumped from Gmail to Google Reader, and yes, there’s little correlation. I draw my inspiration from years of watching the Simpsons.)

I’ve been familiar with RSS feeds for awhile, mostly through customizing my homepage with feeds from favorite news sites. Reader, however, opened my eyes to the possibilities of RSS. Let me give you one example:

So there’s this guy named Craig, and he runs a series of digital community message boards; for some reasons he calls them his “lists.” Anyways, I often check the “computer gigs” section for potential projects, and I’d check in Baltimore list, the DC list, the Philly list and sometimes even the Peru list. (Hey, wouldn’t you like to sell a website to Machu Picchu?) I’d check each city’s list and scour through the posted project requests, trying to recall which ones I’d already read. And when I was done, a whole world posted new projects that I wouldn’t find until I repeated my routine the following day.

But with Reader, I could subscribe to each city’s “computer gigs” section and every new posted project came directly to me! No more need to jump from city list to city list. No more confusion over what was new. No more missing posts overnight. After plugging in a Firefox add-on, my browser would even automatically keep an eye on Reader for me. So I went from setting a daily reminder to check 10+ sites, to a tiny icon in the corner of my browser window telling me how many posts awaited me. In real-time.

Reader also opened my eyes to a challenge though. Feeds can be read directly in Reader, freeing one from having to actually go to the author’s website; more importantly, freeing one from having to actually read the product, pitch or advertisement on the author’s website. Some feeds only show the headline of a post, and some teaser lines, requiring one to go to the actual site to read the rest. Even so, it’s still allowing the masses in search of instant gratification to scan a site’s content without having to actually jump in.

What if Google mimics the business model of Apps and Gmail, and starts posting its own ads on Reader's interface. [spooky music] Would Google then be profiting off of others content? No I'm not wearing a tinfoil hat, why do you ask?

A few feeds attach advertisements within the feeds themselves, and thus the internet evolves. (Pssssst….we can do that for you!)

My mind being completely overwhelmed with the long term ramifications and endless new found possibilities of RSS feeds (yes I know this is so 2005), I’ve spent the week pacing by Brad’s desk stammering about how my world is forever changed.

Sorry for the interruptions Brad. There is a solution though: you could just give me the plant.