The BBC just put up a from-scratch how-to for its RSS feeds.
Tags: rss
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on Thursday, January 12th, 2006 at 8:06 am.
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January 12th, 2006 at 12:49 pm
You have to wonder about an application that requires a “how-to” to drive consumer adoption.
Did Google require a how-to? Or E-bay, Amazon, MySpace, IM, e-commerce, e-mail, web browsing?
Even where some technical learning was required, there was a sufficiently burning need for the application that consumers plunged right in. Can it really be a killer app if it needs to be explained to the average person why it’s a killer app — and if it requires a multi-step tutorial for how to use it?
Can anyone describe what RSS is and how to use it in a simple phrase, as you can with other killer apps?
Google — Use key words to find anything online
E-bay — Buy or sell anything from anybody online
E-mail — Send a message to anyone with email
IM — Chat with people live online
MySpace — Hang out and socialize online
Here’s one for RSS from Bill Flitter at Pheedo: “subscribe to content/updates directly from this site without having to provide an email address.†And only get those updates when there’s new content.
It’s just not there yet.
January 12th, 2006 at 6:20 pm
That BBC site is horribly designed and makes something simple seem unnecessarily confusing.
What’s so hard to understand about RSS? It’s simpler than setting up a POP email account and people manage to do that.
>Can anyone describe what RSS is and how to use it in a
>simple phrase, as you can with other killer apps?
The examples you gave don’t explain “how” to do anything. So following your template:
RSS - Receive updated Web content automatically.
Seems simple enough to me.
January 13th, 2006 at 5:03 am
The hightech blog (neoweb.nl) also has a RSS tutorial here