News companies turn to RSS
11 February 2005
RSS is transforming the way people receive news online, according to a number of media reports.
Several newspapers have now launched their own customised software in order to provide web users with up to the minute information on their chosen subjects.
An RSS reader is a piece of software that pulls in headlines and text automatically, enabling users to create their own customised content from newspapers, blogs and search engines.
In the past two weeks, the Los Angeles Times, the UK's Guardian newspaper, and online news site CNET, have all announced plans to offer their own free, branded RSS readers. RSS allows newspapers to access a much wider audience, but they have little control over how their content is displayed and the software also strips items of lucrative advertising.
"We think the developments that are happening with RSS are simultaneously very exciting and very frightening," said Simon Waldman, director of digital publishing for Guardian Newspapers.
The Los Angeles Times and the Guardian are both putting their own brands on an RSS reader called NewsPoint from software firm Consenda, while CNET's Newsburst reader is available now as a preview release.
The CNET News.com site will compete with Bloglines and Rojo and the copy on the Newsburst preview site reads: "Newsburst is a personalised tool that tracks virtually any type of information on the Web: news, blogs, shopping lists, weather, search results, alerts, auctions and more."
Only one or two per cent of online Guardian readers currently access the site using RSS technology and a study by the Pew Internet Trust found that just five per cent of US internet users were using the software.
RSS readers are also available as part of the My Yahoo! service and the free Firefox Web browser, and news agency Reuters offers an RSS feed.
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