FeedBurner has started a series of articles/whitepapers about various aspects of RSS in today’s Web 2.0 world.  In this first article, Dick discusses the whole blogs are RSS, RSS is blogs dilemma.  While I think there would be little arguement that RSS (and Atom) helped propel blogs and blogging (nothing expands a medium like a way to read lots of content fast), RSS (and other syndication formats) have truly started to meet their potential in our information hungry world.  I have feeds for blogs, of course, but I also have feeds for searches from various engines.  FeedBurner has a "FeedMedic" feed that alerts me when I have a problem.  Several news sources I like to read have feeds.  None of these are blogs.  All of them are critical to me doing my job(s).  Sure I might be professional blogger, but I’m also a product manager for a software company, a Chief Blogging Officer, and a partner in a blog consulting firm.  So I can’t just follow the cool stuff.  I need to track business information.  Changes in software platforms.  Developments in the industry.  Oh, and write about it.  Lots.  Couldn’t do it without RSS.  No way.

 

I think FeedBurner summed it up best in how RSS fits, and is critical to digital media:

Essentially it means you get the content when you want it, you’re connected to the content (and the author), and the content is easy to understand or digest.

 

Makes sense to me.