Is RSS the Best of Web 2.0?

AUGUST 2, 2007

Not always.

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) has the highest value among Web 2.0 technologies, according to a Forrester Research report cited in a BtoB article.

RSS was considered to have substantial business value by 23% of respondents. One in three said they used RSS for marketing.

Web 2.0 business value was not measured by 14% of respondents. Of those who did measure, most looked at metrics such as ROI and total cost of ownership.

Forrester surveyed IT decision-makers between April and June 2007.

So is RSS really the most valuable Web 2.0 technology?

That depends on who is asked, and how "valuable" is defined.

RSS is simple to implement, requires no maintenance and can be integrated easily into all business processes using most forms of content. That is all music to the ears of chief technology officers and other IT decision-makers.

US interactive marketers are also catching the RSS bug, judging by another Forrester study conducted with ClickZ. The study found that 40% of US interactive marketers were either using or piloting RSS in 2007, up from 10% in 2006.

However, that does not mean that business-to-consumer marketers all think that RSS is more effective or valuable than other new media.

In fact, a November 2006 study by the American Advertising Federation put RSS at the bottom of select online new media types - including Web 2.0 methods like social networks and blogs - in terms of effectiveness.

If the technology is not so hot, why are marketers using and piloting RSS in growing numbers, as indicated in the Forrester/ClickZ study?

Those piloting RSS may be testing exactly how effective it is. Others who are using it may not consider it the best new tool in terms of effectiveness or value, but use it anyway as part of a campaign with multiple elements.

This is especially true with television networks, which recognize the need to adapt to a Web 2.0 environment. Users expect to be able to integrate their own media with professionally created content. As a result, 74% of the top TV networks said they had included RSS in the media mix during the first quarter of 2007, according to a 360i study.

RSS, like any emerging media, is not for every marketer. TV networks use it with other Web 2.0 tools to reach Internet users. Techies like it because it is flexible and low-maintenance.

Learn more about how consumers are using new media. Please read the eMarketer User-Generated Content: Will Web 2.0 Pay Its Way? report.

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FeedBurner Ad Leader On What Google Deal Means

by Gavin O'Malley, Friday, Jun 8, 2007 6:00 AM ET
WITH THE ACQUISITION OF FEEDBURNER last week, Google secured a wealth of media syndication analytics, and access to a distribution channel with latent ad opportunities.
Besides a rumored $100 million, RSS technology company FeedBurner is guaranteed loads of extra consumer and publisher data, along with new strategies for monetizing and optimizing its delivery systems, according to Brent Hill, vice president of advertising services at FeedBurner.
"From the advertising side, there's a lot of room ahead in terms of monetization and optimization, which Google is going to expose us to," Hill said during a conversation with OnlineMediaDaily on Thursday. "We'll be learning how to incorporate their analytics and monetization strategies for advertisers."
Much remains to be learned about RSS users and their consumption habits, according to Hill.
"The way to understand demographics has been to work with publishers, survey their audiences, and try to get representative sample sizes," he said. "Google does some of the same things around AdSense content, so we'll be able to combine our information and make progress faster."
In addition, Google has strong relationships with online retailers--a group critical to the next phase of growth for FeedBurner and the RSS industry at large, said Hill.
"Google is going to help speed up retailer adoption of RSS as a marketing tool because of its connection with the retailer community, which is obviously a gigantic category around paid search and AdSense," he explained.
"To the extent that Google's client-serving teams can understand more about what can be done with feeds, I think we can just roll that out and get it into the hands of sales teams and get it out to retailers more quickly," Hill added.
FeedBurner has serviced nearly 432,000 publishers worldwide, according to Dick Costolo, FeedBurner CEO and co-founder. Additionally, the company is delivering 67 million subscriptions per day and counting.
In addition to independent bloggers and podcasters, FeedBurner is a major distributor of RSS feeds for publishers such as Reuters and USA Today as well as retailers and travel companies offering feeds about their latest deals.

Why Would Feedburner Be Worth $100M To Google? 10 Reasons.

Techcrunch and Valleywag say they have confirmed a report that Google has acquired Feedburner. There is no confirmation yet that the deal is done but these sites are putting their necks on the line on the story posting that Google has agreed to pay $100M and that the deal will be announced in 2-3 weeks. We have heard other indications that the story is indeed right this time around.

If true, the a:c thinks it a great deal for both companies:

1) Analytics roll-up. We would guess that Google is more interested in Feedburner's analytics side than its RSS ad server or revenue potential. As a publisher, we know its a pain to daily combine your web site numbers with your RSS, email (plus maybe mobile numbers). We want one place to give us our numbers and aggregate growth. Google + Feedburner analytics would be a big step forward.

The real value in Feedburner is in the analytics and data.

2) Install base. With Feedburner rep'ing feeds from 400K+ publishers and mounting, Google + Feedburner would make it very difficult for the Google wary to opt out of working with Google. Google will have so many touch points on so many publishers it may become pointless to even try to keep Google at arm's length. Same goes for advertisers, where Google would now have another channel to sell.

3) RSS is not simple as advertised. Google will gain knowledge on how to manage RSS from a handful of people who get it and know how to manage the RSS feeds for thousands of publishers.

4) Sector dominance. Feedburner dominates RSS feed management and has a hugely loyal audience. These are attributes that are worth paying a premium for. Unlike game or mobile advertising where there are multiple players, it is unlikely that anybody was going to approach Feedburner's dominant position. Feedburner's subscriber number chicklet has become a de-facto industry standard for measuring RSS and Google ownership would likely lock that down.

The ubiquitous Feedburner subscriber number, found here on valuable TechCrunch home page real estate.

5) Tier A to the long tail. In other channels, startups tend to focus on either the long tail or the top tier publishers. Feedburner has both.

6) Google knows publishers better than they know themselves. Google's data mining reach gives it a great understanding of traffic across the Internet. By adding data from RSS feeds, Google gains another key layer of data.

7) For Feedburner, it will gain advertising expertise. The company was staffed by tech pros, not ad jockeys.

8) While Google and Yahoo have largely stood on the sidelines in RSS advertising, other online ad networks have started to add RSS ads as a module: Quigo, Textlink Ads, etc. The timing is right to get in front of that wave by building a bigger brand presence with Google and Feedburner.

9) On the finance side, $100M is a rounding error for Google, while it is a sweet payday for Feedburner and investors (who only put in $10M. ) Feedburner is reported to have done $10M in revenues, so a 10x valuation for the industry leader is on par with what Google paid for Doubleclick. One blogger noted that Google would be paying $243 per publisher, but that logic doesn't account for that fact that Feedburner manages feeds for huge sites like USA Today, IDG Publications, and Reuters. $243 for a big account like USA Today! Forget it.

10) Oh yeah, and Feedburner is also powering a lot of podcast sites, so Google gets entree to two channels in one deal.

Hazards
+ Feedburner is a relatively open system. A publisher could run ads through while managing their feeds in Feedburner, without running Feedburn ads or Adsense. If Google Feedburner tries to crack down on that, they may see a revolt from users.

What other sites are saying:

Techcrunch is claiming to confirm the deal. Techcrunch post as did Valleywag.

Hipmojo has a nice summary of Feedburner's publisher users and lists additional hazards: "Feedburner is increasingly popping up as a search result high on Google. Google will now effectively be sending traffic, lots of it, to its own pages (indirectly). People cried foul when Google began to link as “shortcuts” links to Google Video, Maps, etc."

Read/Write Web says: "The price itself seems like a steal to me. Feedburner's 422,000 publishers may not seem like a lot for a $100 million investment, but that 422,000 publishers actually translates into access to many millions of readers that Google can push advertising to."

Techfold: "As is mentioned more and more, Google’s reach is sort of creeping me out. The Internet is increasingly at the mercy of Google’s “Don’t be Evil” motto - here’s hoping they stick to it."

Marketers Warm Up to Social Media

Marketers Warm Up to Social Media March 28, 2007 By Brian Morrissey
NEW YORK Advertisers are increasingly willing to try social marketing, with growing plans to tap user-generated content, blogs and social networks. Forrester Research, in a survey of over 90 marketers, found social media is gaining broader acceptance, though it still trails far behind Web mainstays like e-mails, search marketing and display ads.

Many marketers are waiting for concrete proof these channels work before diving into them, Forrester found. Of those not using social media channels, "proof of use" was the No. 1 factor that would encourage trial. "Consumers are moving so quickly into emerging media that marketers can't keep up," Forrester analyst Brian Haven concluded in the report. "We bet marketers calling for 'proof of use' really need to increase their own familiarity with the medium and its application for their customers." Despite the hesitancy from a sizeable percentage of marketers, the research firm reported a large increase in use and plans for emerging media compared to a year ago. For instance, 13 percent of respondents reported active blog programs in 2006, which rose to 34 percent this year. By the end of the year, over half of the marketers expect to have blog initiatives up and running. Social networks should see a larger jump. While just over 20 percent of marketers are using social networks now, nearly 60 plan to do so by the end of the year. In 2006, just 13 percent of respondents said they were using social networks. The user-generated story is similar. About 22 percent said they have initiatives in place, while over 65 percent plan to by the end of the year.Other emerging media tactics, like RSS and podcasts, are also expected to gain widespread adoption by the end of the year, with more than two out of three respondents planning to use them. Forrester found that not all emerging channels are catching on as quickly.Despite much hype, marketers are still wary to jump into mobile marketing and gaming. Just 13 percent reported using text messaging for marketing and 11 percent have mobile Web sites. Virtual worlds were used by just 7 percent of respondents, with about 25 percent expecting a presence in 2007.

MediaPost Publications - Pheedo Unveils New Ad Unit - 02/14/2007

MediaPost Publications - Pheedo Unveils New Ad Unit - 02/14/2007: "Pheedo Unveils New Ad Unit
Wednesday, Feb 14, 2007 6:00 AM ET
RSS MARKETING FIRM PHEEDO HAS launched a new ad unit that allows publishers to syndicate their RSS feeds onto sites they sponsor. The ad units include articles--text or video--from the publisher's feed, as well as links that allow users to subscribe to the feeds directly from the ad unit. Advertisers using the service include Web browser Opera, women's health site Life Script, as well as clients in the automotive and travel spaces. "