We knew Twitter lists were going to be big for Twitter. We knew they were going to greatly increase the usefulness of the service, and for many, even the enjoyment. What we didn't know, however, was that right out of the box, we would see so many different uses for them, providing a window to the potential that they really do hold not only for Twitter itself, but for any business or individual who uses it. Let's look at a few of those ways that Twitter lists are being used.
Google launched AdSense for Feeds all the way back in 2005. Now the company is integrating it right into its Blogger property.
Google has added some new things to Google Reader in order to deliver a more personalized experience for the user. The company compares the features to how personalized search improved search results based on search history. Google thinks the new changes will have a similar affect on users' reading experience.
Google recently announced an extension of its category filtering beta to Engligh-language ads on the AdSense network. Now Google is pointing out that this applies to AdSense for feeds as well.
Google has announced that Google Reader has begun adoption of the PubSubHubbub protocol for shared items. This is a simple, open, server-to-server web-hook based pubsub (publish/subscribe) protocol, as defined on this Google Code page.
Here's a visual overview of what that means:
There is no question that Twitter and RSS have some things in common. However, they are not the same, and Twitter will not kill the feed reader. This is a concept I have seen come up a number of times, and frankly, I just don't see it happening, at least not without some dramatic changes in how Twitter is presented to its users.
Hewlett-Packard has an interesting new service that allows users to turn RSS feeds into deliverable, printable PDFs. The service is called Tablloid and works basically like other feed readers.
Google Reader has added some new data to the Trends department. For those who do not use Google Reader, or pay little attention to the Trends feature, it simply lays your reading habits out graphically so you can see when you are reading feeds the most, what you are reading the most, what you are reading the least, and so on.
RSS feeds are not catching on like some of us thought they would. New data from Forrester Research indicates that only the slim minority of consumers are using it, and furthermore, a great deal of those who don't have no intention of doing so in the future. When Forrester asked if people currently use an RSS feed:
Accoding to Matt McGee at Search Engine Land, Google will soon start offering RSS feeds for search results as an extension of Google Alerts. McGee writes:
iEntry 10th Anniversary
RSS
Newsletter
Advertising
