Syndication Gumption

So from the email they sent out:

Yahoo! News Restatement - May 10, 2007
We have determined a URL coded to the Yahoo! News definition (rss.news.yahoo.com) should be removed from the reporting data beginning with April 2007. The URL contributed traffic to Yahoo! News throughout the past 13 months (March 2006 - 2007) - providing a small amount of incremental Unique Audience for the Channel (2-3%) but, in recent months, contributing as much as 20-25% of the page views and time spent. We will be reposting the data within the Trend Report in the near future. In the interim, please contact your Sales or Client Service Representative to receive an offline correction file across all Standard Metrics.

The domain (rss.news.yahoo.com) is where Yahoo runs all their RSS feeds related to news.  What this indicates is people using RSS are driving an increasing number of page views and time spent around the content.  Not clear if it’s in the feed itself or on the actual web site.  Likely on the web site.  Regardless, a clear indicator of the not only the adoption of RSS but the actual usage of the feed’s content.

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I agree with Dave but how can you implement through a TV?  Not sure if possible with current state of interactive TV and how does the content provider continue to monetize the content/audience?  As more third-generation Tivo’s supporting RSS and Apple TVs get added to entertainment centers, the opportunity to deliver and monetize a story feed grows.

The scenario is possible now.  What you need:

- Content management system producing a feed containing the articles, audio, and video associated to a specific story.
- A centrally managed subscription/OPML file
- Device capable of updating it’s subscriptions using the central subscription/OPML file

So the CMS system can produce the story feed.  Dave’s ”Share Your OPML” can provide a hosted OPML file but likely new types a personalized, protected OPML repositories (from Google, Yahoo, etc or private vendors) will emerge.  Next comes the RSS reader for Apple TV using the central OPML file to add the latest subscriptions to specific story feeds.  This is different from what Newsgator offers.  Basically it’s IMAP for RSS.

When on CNN, you add the Virginia Tech story feed to IE7 which then updates the central OPML with the subscription information.  The next time you sit down in front of the TV, check the Apple TV RSS reader for the latest Virginia Tech stories.  Read, watch or listen.  Start using VideoEgg or ScanScout video monetization tools allowing publisher to offer advertisers solutions for time-shifted consumption.

Wait and see.

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You can create as many feeds as you like.  One for a conference, a couple of teams, and for a specific day.  It’s up to you.  First select the type (Team, Date, Conference, Venue, Seed, Region).  Based on the selection, the second drop-down will change to reflect the appropriate options.  Hit “Go” and the feed will be available below.  Then subscribe to the the RSS feed (using Add This) and/or iCalendar feed (copy and paste into Google Calendar or click the link button for iCal/Apple).  The feed contains the teams playing, approximate tip-off time (all EDT but should show up in your calendar correctly based on your time zone), and venue.  As the tournament progresses, the feeds will be updated automatically.  For a team feed, there next game, time, and foe will be added to the calendar… if they win .  Same is true for the RSS feed.

This is just one example of what I talked about in a previous blog post (under Syndicate IQ) about the feed is the story.  The Dallas Morning News had a feed for everything related to the Rita and Katrina hurricanes.  A “Story Feed” can contain not only breaking news but video/audio reports, community reaction, volunteer needs, traffic and weather advisories, and much more.  I help put together Madness Fans as a proof of concept to show what can be done to help folks organize and maintain the flow of information related to an event spanning multiple days/weeks.  And for some, to keep up with their addiction.

Enjoy!

NOTE:  Google calendar and our iCal feeds are not playing nice.  We will get it figure out.  Be patient.  We put this together in less then 3 days (quarter-time) using Rails.

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It measures activity from subscribers AND people who don’t subscriber.  Here is one example where twice as many people, that includes the subscribers, interacted with the feed’s content which are mostly clicks back to the web site.  So how does a publisher determine the number of subscribers consistently reading their content.  And from an advertiser prospective, is the “reach” calculation a valid measure to evaluate an ad campaign especially when buying on a CPM.  Think about this happening once a week for a publisher.  With 2000 subscribers and 25% reach, one reach spike (double the subscriber base) makes the weekly reach average 50%.

So what is missing when it comes to RSS metrics?  A whole lot when you think about it.

New/Returning Subscribers
Just like email, the monthly number of subscribers who have opted-out and the number of opt-ins.

Attention or Readership
The number of direct subscribers (people who have added the feed to an aggregator) viewing or clicking on at least one article in 24 hours.

Day of Week and Day Part Viewing/Clicking
And mix in the publisher’s articles date and time (pubDate) to understand consumption behavior.

Extended Reach
Taking Feedburner’s current measure and differentiating when direct subscribers and non-subscribers interact with the feed’s content.

Time-Spent
This is a really big stretch especially based on how “subscribers” are counted.  Most high-end web analytics packages (Omniture, Coremetrics, etc.) provide time-spent reporting.  Time-spent is the best indicator of the opportunity to monetization a publisher’s content.

These are just general metrics.  Two future articles will get into podcast and advertising analytics/reporting.

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Regardless of the reason, there are three better reasons why it’s not likely to be granted:

• prior art
• prior art
• prior art

Most patents applications don’t get granted because of prior art.  More will likely come to light so relax.  And have a happy new year.

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Are the free web-based aggregators still trying to find a revenue model?  Pluck got out of the business of free web-based aggregators.  Can’t blame them.  They offer syncing read/un-read status across different access methods (web, desktop client, Tivo, mobile device, etc.) and attention data to help you find new content sources.  Anything else?  They are helping to build branded RSS aggregators but IMHO the wrong brand (for another post related to local media and syndication).

So what is “Hosted Conversation”?  With all capabilities of the Internet as an OS, will someone please post a graphic with the inputs, outputs, and ad insertions points.  Why?  Because either the writer does not understand the basics of syndication or the marketing/PR departments of the the two companies (one of the world’s largest PR firms) could not communicated and/or understand what they just launched.  Thanks and I’m waiting.  (NOTE:  Before posting this article, I did not check either site for any other information.)

Updated 12/18/06 - 11:00 PM CST:

So it’s an web-display ad powered by an RSS feed.  From a technology prospective, the ad serving guys can change the message(s) in the ad on the fly (dynamic messaging).  Edelman is aggregating/mining feeds to find the “gems” about a brand so they can post into the ad.  Rick Murray, president of Edelman’s social media division me2revolution, says “will not advise its clients to avoid posts that are critical of their brands”.  Why doesn’t the brand start a blog, insert their latest post in the ad, and ask for comments?  Seems like a simple way to start a conversation but complicated (i.e costly) may be better.  So how do you stop ad comment spam?

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You may or may not catch that something is wrong.  If you do, great.  Chances are you may not. Danny Sullivan’s “Security and the End User” article hightlights the importance as well as what Bloglines has proposed.  The question still remains:  why would someone use a feed management/metrics service for there own personal, secure feeds?  What do they gain?  Do they understand the difference between an aggregator and a syndication management service?  Even if:

Bloglines actually provides HTTP authentication for secure feeds. When this method is used, Bloglines secures the feed so that it can not be searched on or subscribed to except by the owner of the feed.

It’s not 100% guarantee it gets release by accident.  No guarantee someone could not access my computer and look through my RSS reader for the info but more likely they would try to get user/pass from my browser first.  The community needs to keep thinking about how best to handle from a technical standpoint (aggregator, management services, etc.).  For now, continue to educate the new RSS user before they create a situation that turns them off from RSS.

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Some of them supporting publishers (yes, there is still plenty of room) who are creating text, audio, and video content.  Others will support marketers/e-commerce companies and others will directly support consumers with RSS/syndication related services.  Syndication Gumption continues the education, analysis/opinion, resources, and news aspects of Syndicate IQ.  It is important to provide syndicators (those evaluating RSS/Syndication management companies), analyst, web 2.0 bloggers, a “common sense” voice about the opportunities being realized utilizing this new Internet plumbing called RSS.  I will work to peal back the layers of marketing/sales information of various vendors to help highlight and set straight the facts about a service, product, or feature.

Topics coming soon:

• Three Types of RSS URLs: s, i, & p
• Scaling and the Three Types of RSS URLs
• RSS Reach = Web Reach?
• RSS Ads: No Controls!
• SEO using RSS
• Getting Feed on the Go

To those that help along this journey (to all my team mates: co-works, advisors, VCs, and family), thank you.  The next journey begins down the path of providing a little gumption about this thing called RSS.

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