I was wondering if anyone had any views on the news that Apple is to
incorporate RSS into the next version of its browser, Safari?

I gather Msoft has similar plans for Explorer at some point.

I'm looking for any views on the issue (for publication), particularly from
the perspective of online publishing.

From the Apple press release:

"Safari RSS, a new version of Apple's acclaimed web browser uses the
emerging RSS Internet standard to provide instant access to the most current
information from leading sites such as The New York Times, BusinessWeek and
the BBC. Safari RSS automatically discovers an RSS enabled site and displays
a special icon, which when pressed instantly transforms Safari into a full
featured RSS reader displaying the discovered RSS feed. With Safari RSS,
users can easily create their own personal news clipping service with up to
the minute information from several RSS feeds merged into one easy-to-read
interface."

Also:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/28/macosx_tiger_preview/

We're just about to add various RSS / XML feeds to our site. And, as you know, we are experimenting with blogs. So clearly we think there's something worth pursuing with RSS. What then?

One thing that many retailers have learned is that multi-channel retailing works. The likes of Tesco and Argos have shown the value and importance of offering multiple channels for their customers to purchase, order, get customer service etc.

The fact is that different customers want to interact with different channels at different times and in different ways. There is no one-size-fits-all solution so, as far as you are able, you have to try and construct your offering to suit your customer, not the other way round.

I think publishers can learn a lot from retailers. Particularly as more and more move into paid-content as a revenue stream. We should think of our paid-for content as an information product, and the way we sell it should be similar to the way a retailer might sell one of their products. Pricing is important, so is merchandising, so is the way you present it, so is the way you cross and up sell. We need to look at conversion rates, costs of cusotmer acquisition, RFM metrics and the like: all things a retailer would look at.

One thing that online retailers are very focused on is lowering the costs of customer acquisition and driving traffic to acquire new customers. One very effective way of doing this is through product feeds to external sites. For example, product feeds to price comparison sites like Kelkoo, or product feeds to affiliates, or product feeds into Froogle. It's all about getting your product out in front of potential customers to draw them in for the lowest cost possible.

I would see our forthcoming RSS feeds a bit like a retailer's product feeds. Some of our target market DO use RSS readers, and increasingly so. So if they want to consume our content in this way, why shouldn't we let them? The more ways we can give them to access our content products online, the better. And if other sites want to carry some of our content, why should we stop them from helping to distribute our content to help drive targetted traffic back to us at low costs?

(There are also search engine ranking benefits which have been discussed already in the context of blogs)

Ashley

The good news is that you don't have to wait for Microsoft.

Deepnet Explorer is a new browser fully compatible with IE but with enhanced features, including a built in RSS newsreader.
See also:
http://www.e-consultancy.com/newsfeatures/156731/new-browser-super-charges-internet-explorer.html

On 12:28:55 29 June 2004 mikegb wrote:
>I was wondering if anyone had any views on the news that
>Apple is to
>incorporate RSS into the next version of its browser,
>Safari?
>
>I gather Msoft has similar plans for Explorer at some
>point.
>
>I'm looking for any views on the issue (for publication),
>particularly from
>the perspective of online publishing.
>
>From the Apple press release:
>
>"Safari RSS, a new version of Apple's acclaimed web
>browser uses the
>emerging RSS Internet standard to provide instant access
>to the most current
>information from leading sites such as The New York Times,
>BusinessWeek and
>the BBC. Safari RSS automatically discovers an RSS enabled
>site and displays
>a special icon, which when pressed instantly transforms
>Safari into a full
>featured RSS reader displaying the discovered RSS feed.
>With Safari RSS,
>users can easily create their own personal news clipping
>service with up to
>the minute information from several RSS feeds merged into
>one easy-to-read
>interface."
>
>Also:
>
>http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/28/macosx_tiger_previ-
>ew/