Subscription based media – Podcasts and RSS Feeds

Do you have a favorite website, blogger, or internet radio program? Are you tired of checking their website everyday to see if there is something new? Then you need to check to see if your favorite website offers an RSS feed. An RSS feed enables large amounts of people to simultaneously receive information. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and is at its base, a subscription based news source. Every time a site updates its content it sends notification via RSS. The end user receives a link that takes them to the new information.

People can receive their RSS feeds through their web browsers, email applications or even their homepage from some internet service providers, such as Yahoo.

According to the 2005 Yahoo white paper “RSS – Crossing into the Mainstream” out of all internet users 4% knowingly use RSS feeds. Surprisingly 25% of users unknowingly use RSS feeds. Many times this is how the information on the homepage is updated.

Similarly, you can subscribe to audio or video blogs called podcasts. Podcasts are programs that you can listen to on your own terms via the internet. The term podcast comes from combining broadcasting and iPod. Examples of podcasts include national radio and television shows, public radio broadcasts, and specialized shows that would not make their way onto mainstream media.

The beauty of podcasts is that they are extremely portable. As long as you have an iPod or some other type of mp3 player you can take your podcast with you wherever you want and listen at your convenience. They also give a voice to people who may not get airtime on a more traditional broadcast set-up. Podcasts are similar to magazines in the way that they are designed for niche markets, not for the general public. For example, if your hobby is poker, you will have a hard time finding a radio or television show outside of Las Vegas or Atlantic City discussing strategy and poker news. However, thanks to podcasting, there are multiple shows discussing game theory, strategy, tips, techniques, and news about the sport.

June 2005 Apple comes into the podcast market and starts the podcasting boom. This gave credibility to the genre. By having Apple join the fray, the technology got a boost of name recognition and consumer confidence. The easiest way to find the most popular podcasts is to go iTunes and search through their lists.

Generally podcasts are made up of digital media. This makes them easy to convert into the mp3 format that is required for the portability feature.

Both podcasts and RSS feeds allow users to keep current on their favorite sites with very little effort.