Project Clarity

Brian Clark of Copyblogger writes, “RSS feeds solve all the problems that spammers and bad marketers created with email, because it puts control back in the hands of the subscriber.”

RSS could put the power back with the subscriber. Good for the subscriber. Did you really want to read all those newsletters within your e-mail? Did you ever notice how many of them end up in your spam filter? Did you notice that you really missed them? A few, perhaps. Did you ever let your spam filter essentially unsubcribe for you by continuing to block an e-mail newsletter? Have I? Um, yeah…

Now, RSS is not the panacea just yet; at least I don’t think so. RSS readers, in my opinion, are still improving, becoming better integrated into browsers and even e-mail programs (have we come full circle?).

For the subscriber, RSS is cleaner, provides easy access to “historic” content, and makes unsubscribing easier and less passive aggessive than the spam filter cop out mentioned above.

For the content provider (or relationship builder, or guy trying to sell you stuff), it puts on the pressure for interesting and timely content. Not a bad challenge.