Obligatory RSS advertising post
Better mention the Wired article on RSS advertising and the Signal vs. Noise thread about it too. Despite the abundant pithy disgust response (“Unsubscribed.”), I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing. RSS items are marshallable, mungeable things. If a user doesn’t want to read an ad, she doesn’t have to click the RSS item. Software can be written to sift ads from content if you’re really upset, but honestly, what’s wrong with targeted text-based ads?
Data point: Google’s PageAds don’t bother me at all. They don’t blink, don’t jump around, and I can choose to look at them or not without a whole lot of hassle. They’re unobtrusive, and therefore I’m less likely to shut them all down. And so now what we have are textual advertisements in a structured medium—perfect for this kind of take-it-or-leave-it user scenario.
Look at it this way. If the RSS ad keeps your favorite feed running, but doesn’t obscure the content or cause an epileptic seizure, be thankful.
Another possible way to support RSS feeds: headlines are free, but you can pay a few bucks a year for full-article service, audioblogs, images, etc. That sounds like a winning proposition.