Comscore Networks published a report today that states 1 in 6 of the total US Population visited blog sites in Q1 2005. Readership is growing (45% in the last year) and more and more people tend to recognize a blog when they see it.
At the same time, the number of blogs available are growing way faster. Currently, the number of blogs on the net are doubling every five months according to some. If only we could see the same growth in readership as we are seeing in blogs.
There is so much information available. Its so much easier to follow our favourite blogs when reading them through RSS feeds. If we want to find new blogs to read, we’ll just follow links in the posts we are interested in to discover new information. It’s amazing. All of a sudden the unruly numbers of blogs and links and tags and everything else is easily wrapped up for us.
But what about those who have discovered blogs, but not RSS? You and I may think RSS is Really Simple Syndication, but there are many others who do not. Think about it, though, have you ever tried explaining RSS to someone you know who has pretty basic computer knowledge? Aggregator, feeder, syndicator, posts, comments, cutting, pasting, XML, Atom, trackbacks, and the number of syndicator options there are available will make anyone’s head spin. I get tired just explaining it. [sidenote: Barry Schwartz’s Paradox of Choice makes a great deal of sense here]
As early adopters (and anyone who is currently just starting out is still considered an early adopter in my eyes), we have the patience to fumble through new technologies. We’ll figure them out because that’s our passion. Plus, we like being ‘in the know’.
Now, though, the numbers are starting to suit our cause (I’m assuming that almost everyone wants readership to grow) and its time for someone to design foolproof SSS — Super Simple Syndication. Something that detects you are on a blog or another site with a feed and pops up asking “Would you like to add this site to your newsfeed?” (if you don’t already have it there) You can click yes or no and then keep moving around without any further interruption.
Done. Even better, how about one of those Amazon-type suggestion tools that is tucked into the bottom of your aggregator? It can detect the tags and keywords and does a search for you and displays suggestions for similar posts (most recent and relevant first, not most visited).
Maybe there is something out there like this in BETA already. I don’t know. I just know that RSS is still way too complicated to sell it far and wide, and until that happens, the blogosphere will grow, but readership will go flat.
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