After reading Robin Good's blog, the idea that it is the portability and mobility of RSS content that makes indexing it a compelling opportunity makes a lot of sense. The user permission and choice aspects alone make RSS extremely helpful to the relatively limited number of Web users who now use it. Adding search capability to the portability and mobility Good cites as advantages of RSS equals a huge opportunity for the right player.
In a blog post yesterday, entitled
RSS SEO And The Opportunity For A Major Category-Based Directory Of RSS Feeds, Robin Good identified an important opportunity to create a new functionality enabling users to find RSS content that is not being filled in the current market.
Good noted that some players like Yahoo! are beginning to make RSS more accessible, and are indexing RSS feeds "quietly." It sounds like those players may be in a position to find creative ways to leverage some of the competencies that Good mentions now belong to niche playes like Technorati, Daypop, Feedster and others.
Executed effectively, an RSS-based customer and prospect communication strategy could be an unprecedented win for responsible marketers with relevant content, since it is not only a relatively new technology in most niche segments, but also one with very low barriers to entry.
Widespread adoption of RSS will generate natural demand for a search mechanism to narrow the potentially billions of choices in feeds.
Of course, such an engine would beg some questions. What would determine "page rank" in an RSS search result? What is the AdWords-like potential? What do you call the practice of SEO for RSS? What if it's a Podcast?
Check out the post on the blog, or go right to
Robin Good's RSS feeds .