I recently finished a report on 'The RSS Space' for a client. In it I mapped out the current RSS vendor landscape, building on a blog post that Brad Feld wrote well over a year ago.
I've decided to publish the vendor map onto a JotSpot Wiki as a kind of 'Open Source' gesture. Currently the data is representative, because it only has about 50 vendors mapped. There are just too many RSS vendors in the world today for one person to comprehensively map them all. Which is why I've put it onto a wiki - I'd like to invite the community to flesh it out, so we can all benefit from the data.
The Wiki was set up with the help of the good people of JotSpot (I did try other Wiki solutions, but Ken from JotSpot went out of his way to help me). It's open for anybody to edit. Unfortunately because it's a really wide and long table, the formatting is not ideal. If anyone knows a way to improve the formatting, please let me know!
There's also an RSS feed, so that you and I can track changes.
What am I hoping is going to happen here? I really want people to add new vendors to the table - there are literally hundreds of RSS vendors out there. The more that are added to the table the better!
Regarding how the RSS vendors are categorized on the Wiki. Below you'll see a table that summarizes the categories and provides examples. It wasn't just me who came up with this, in fact most of the credit goes to Brad Feld - who literally defined the first and last versions of the categories. Also a big thanks to (in alphabetical order) Ben Barren, David Beisel, Fergus Burns, Jeff Clavier, Dick Costolo, Fred Wilson, Charlie Wood.
Let me know what you think of the categories in the comments below. And of course please add to the RSS vendor list on the wiki.
Table 1: RSS Sectors
|
CATEGORY (--> means sub-category) |
EXAMPLES |
|
Publisher Services --> Content --> Analytics --> Feed Mgmt --> Advertising |
Feedburner Nooked Pheedo SimpleFeed Syndicate IQ |
|
Reader Services (including RSS Aggregators and Consumer
services/tools) --> Web-based --> Desktop --> Mobile --> Enterprise --> White Label |
Bloglines Del.icio.us Moreover Newsgator PubSub |
|
CMS/Blogging --> Hosted --> Standalone --> Enterprise |
Blogger MSN Spaces Six Apart Wordpress Yahoo 360 |
|
Content (including Podcasting, blog networks, news directories) --> Proprietary --> User-Generated |
Gawker iPodder Odeo Topix.net Weblogsinc |
|
Search --> Index --> White Label / Microsites (e.g. Technorati Live8 promotion) --> Embedded (e.g. Google network and Technorati partnership with Newsweek) --> Market Research |
Bloglines Feedster Ice Rocket Technorati |
OK I do have ulterior motives for publishing the RSS vendor categorization and mapping. Firstly, I want to publicize my new career as a freelance Analyst in the RSS/Web 2.0/Social Media space. The categorization/mapping work was just the foundation for the final analysis report I delivered to my client. I'm available to do similar reports for other organizations. In other words: Analyst for Hire!
Secondly, I have a plan to extend the 'RSS Space' analysis report I did into a general industry report, which I will then try and earn a little money off - i.e. like a JupiterResearch or Forrester report, only far less expensive!
To be clear - what I've published on the wiki is just the RSS vendor mapping. The analysis report I wrote based on that data is for my client's eyes only - but I'm available to do reports for other companies. Think of the Analyst reports I do as building value on top of open data - very Web 2.0 don't you think? ;-)
What are you waiting for, get on over to the Wiki! :-)
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great wiki...
i think a category needs to be added for user identity or identifiable identity...ok, that is not clear, but hopefully you'll know what i'm talking about.
Posted by: ariel | September 6, 2005 12:59 AM
Interestingly, though, I don't think services like FeedDigest, FeedRoll, or RSS-to-JavaScript fit into any of your categories ;-) FeedDigest will fit into a couple of them soon, but not in its current incarnation.
Posted by: Peter Cooper | September 6, 2005 1:37 AM
I'd put FeedDigest, FeedRoll etc into 'Publisher Services --> Content'. That's where I've slotted the content generation services.
Posted by: Richard MacManus | September 6, 2005 2:00 AM
Wanted to make sure you saw Dana Gardner's newest effort, http://www.interarbor-solutions.com/home.html He's going into independent RSS consulting as well. Thought it might be of interest.
Posted by: Marshall Kirkpatrick | September 6, 2005 4:25 AM
Richard:
I've added UserLand Software to the list. Thanks for taking the time to create this open resource.
Steve Kirks
Product Manager
UserLand Software
Posted by: Steve Kirks | September 6, 2005 5:44 AM
Thanks for creating this valuable resource! Nice work. Best of luck in your new venture.
Posted by: havi hoffman | September 6, 2005 8:26 AM
Richard,
Thank you for including Syndicate IQ as part of the vendor matrix. I'm sure it will continue to evolve and provide a great resource for syndicators (publishers, marketers, and information portals).
Thanks again.
Stuart
Posted by: Stuart Watson | September 6, 2005 9:04 AM
I suppose there is no place for lowly libraries in the matrix? Really only of interest to us wild-eyed developer types, but seems like a couple of axes around libraries, and open source might be interesting. (which is all by way of saying, 'whaaah, Magpie didn't make the list' ;)
Posted by: kellan | September 6, 2005 9:44 AM
Kellan, there's room for all RSS vendors - add Magpie to the wiki! :-) That's precisely why I'm using a wiki, so anyone can add to the list.
As for the categories, they are based around ***activities*** - not vendor type or technology attributes (librarian, open source, etc). So hopefully you can slot in Magpie in the current categorization. Indeed I'd suggest 'Publisher Services --> Content', because it's to do with RSS content generation.
Bear in mind these categories are necessarily fairly broad and flexible.
Posted by: Richard MacManus | September 6, 2005 12:40 PM
A good podcast about Gardner's plan for using web 2.0 media in his RSS consultancy can be found atg:
http://www.mediasurvey.com/blog/modules.php?
op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=405
Posted by: Marshall Kirkpatrick | September 6, 2005 1:19 PM
Check that wiki periodically. I'm glad you've got revision history enabled on that thing: someone had just erased everything. I went into the last non-empty revision and copied that content into a new revision.
Posted by: Andrew Chen | September 6, 2005 2:41 PM
Thanks Andrew! If anyone else notices any funny business in the wiki, please feel free to revert back to a previous version.
Posted by: Richard MacManus | September 6, 2005 2:54 PM
you can find here a new rss tools matrix
http://vtech.canalblog.com/archives/2005/09/05/780635.html
Posted by: aref | September 7, 2005 7:06 AM
Thanks for including Pheedo in the mix!
Nice work. Can't wait to read your report on The RSS Space.
Dana VanDen Heuvel
Pheedo, Inc.
Posted by: Dana VanDen Heuvel | September 8, 2005 9:14 PM