The Future of RSS - Is There a Future for RSS?

Several years ago (ages ago in the Internet World), Really Simple Syndication (RSS) emerged as the new cool technology for web syndication. Since then, its adoption has stalled, even declined according to some people. With the emergence of social media (e.g., Twitter, Facebook) and their social syndication platforms, RSS seems hopelessly out of fashion. What is then the future of RSS, if there is a future at all?
The reality is that RSS is pervasive on the web, has achived massive adoption by web publishers and is a widely accepted standard (albeit a lot of variations) for content syndication. In fact, RSS is now being used exactly as it should, a technology for content syndication between publishers and applications. Its use as a widely adopted consumer tool is destined to fail though. It is a technology first and foremost. RSS readers have primarily proven themselves in the early adopter community.
RSS is going to be around for a long time. It will continue to develop as new content and standards emerges on the web. The uses for RSS are only limited by our own imagination. The RSS feeds are now combined with social media applications, such as Facebook Fan Pages and Twitter, creating new syndication channels. There are many more developments going on in this area alone. IngBoo and other companies continuously come out with new innovative ways to leverage content feeds and social media.

We Like Jobs!

We recently began rolling out our subscription feature for Facebook. It makes full use of Facebook Like, adding two key elements to an already great social plug-in:

1. Connect and share continuously, and
2. User-defined (call it "intent" if you like) context for the connection.

More and more people call Facebook home (over 500M in fact). Consequently, the news feed is becoming an important starting point. What if I can get relevant job listings posted to my news feed? With IngBoo this is now possible. We have launched partners that connect the Facebook user via a complete job search, for example Startupers. In other cases, users connect over pre-defined tags (a.k.a., keywords, channels). Rozee is such an example. While users may be reluctant to share their job listings, they are quickly adopting the idea of receiving them in their Facebook News Feed.

Other job sites link their RSS feeds to Facebook using IngBoo. SEO Jobs Finder is a great example of this.

Everyone benefits from expanded reach for job searches. The job seeker has a better chance of seeing a new opportunity in a timely fashion. The job sites see more revisits.

The Fallout Continues?

We have covered Facebook in several posts here on the IngBoo blog specifically, the Facebook Open Graph initiative and its implications for the Internet industry. The first article discussed how Facebook is becoming the de-facto social platform for the web. The second article discussed recent developments with regards to Digg and Yahoo! Buzz.

Today, AOL announced that it is selling off Bebo, their social network service. AOL acquired Bebo for $850M 2 years ago. According to an article in Business Week, they now sold it for $10M. Ouch!

Does this surprise anyone? The current situation is unsustainable anyway. Consolidation simply must happen in the market. Social syndication is great but no one benefits from this:

The image above is from AddThis, a popular plug-in to allow readers to share content.

What may be the next move from Facebook? Maybe they will get into the content business (as in a publisher)?

The Fallout from Facebook Open Graph

We recently wrote about Facebook's new publisher tools and how this will change the Internet forever (again). In the article, we specifically mentioned that some companies, like Yahoo! (specifically Yahoo! Buzz) and Digg need to watch out. We didn't know how fast this would happen. Digg dropped like a rock in April. This coincides with Facebook's roll out of their new social plug-ins. Look at this graph from Compete.com:

Digg dropped from 38.6M unique visitors in March, to 24.7M by end of April. While 24.7M is an impressive visitor number, it is also a 36% drop in traffic... in just one month!

How do we know that this is Facebook's "fault"? We don't. We just applied some logical analysis in April, named a couple of companies that should be concerned and then looked at those companies again now. Maybe this is just a coincidence, we don't know.

Yahoo! Buzz on the other hand, made some strides in April, according to Compete.com. This speaks against our hypothesis.

Buzz climbed from 4M unique visitors, to 6M, which is a 20% increase in traffic. Maybe Buzz just has more overall momentum thanks to integration with Yahoo! sister properties? Thanks to that momentum, Buzz will either take longer to show a drop or, will just stagnate at its current level. Do note that Digg still has over 4x the traffic over Buzz. Maybe Yahoo! should pick them up?

WebGuild has some additional perspective on Digg, which you can read here.

Video Interview with IngBoo Co-Founder and CEO

A couple of days ago, IngBoo co-founder and CEO, Rikard Kjellberg, was interviewed by Andrew Warner of Mixergy. Andrew has a great Internet site, focused on interviews with entrepreneurs. Andrew is a successful entrepreneur himself. You can read his story here.

If you have 40 minutes to spare, the interview is here:

SebCAM TV - One Man on a Mission

We recently partnered with SebCamTV.com (Beware - ADULT content) for content syndication. Sebastian, who owns the site, has a great concept. He shares his life (work and otherwise) in an Internet video show as well as blog. We felt that his site had really good quality content (yes... adult too).




Given his profession, the site provides a unique and fun insight into an industry that most of us know little or nothing about.

Crackberry.com Review of WebStart

CrackBerry.com posted a review of IngBoo WebStart today. Crackberry.com is the premier site for all things BlackBerry. The review is excellent and points to several novelties and benefits of the application.

Note to CrackBerry: We have now also read the memo from WireFly and taken appropriate action. Check it out!

WebStart for BlackBerry - New Version is Out

After a few months in early beta we are today rolling out a new version of WebStart for BlackBerry. We received excellent feedback, which we have integrated into the solution. The application runs on BlackBerry Bold and Curve running OS version 4.6 or above. The early beta had thousands of downloads. The concept of a flat activity list, organized by recency, relevancy and user interactions works beautifully on the mobile form factor, as evidenced by the number of active BlackBerry users. More on the new release can be found here.

The application can be downloaded for free from BlackBerry App World.

New Subscription Function

We have quietly launched a new Facebook experience where Facebook users can enjoy content updates at the pace of the content versus the pace of their social feed. With this, we also launched a new subscription process. You can try the subscribe process by clicking on the subscribe button on this blog. If you want to try out the Facebook application, go here. Please leave feedback at feedback (at) ingboo.com.

Facebook - Nothing has Changed, the Internet Will Never Be the Same

Facebook just announced Open Graph, a new publisher tool that will revolutionize the Internet. On one hand, nothing has really changed. Open Graph merely represents a set of core features that have finally grown up:

• Single sign-on (Facebook Connect)
• Content sharing
• Fan pages
• Social plug-ins

Most sites that joined in the launch have upgraded the single sign-on and sharing features (e.g., CNN.com). The good old Facebook Fan page is still around and will most likely be there for some time. However, with Open Graph, the publisher can now short curcuit the connection to the largest social community on the web (400M+ unique viewers last month). This signifies tighter integration between publishers and Facebook. The publisher still broadcasts into the consumer's news feed which has its challenges with regards to consumer attention.

The sharing feature (a.k.a. "Like" or "Recommend") has the same basic function as the old Share function but with greatly improved social features. For example, I can see that my friend also liked an article and how many others liked it. When you combine the Like button with some of the Facebook widgets, you get a compelling social web integration. Yahoo! Buzz and Digg, watch out!

We believe the most significant change is on the business side. When the upgraded feature set gains momentum, Facebook will cement its position as the de facto (and only) social platform on the web to which web publishers will attach themselves. Other social communities woke up to a new reality today. To survive, they have to redefine and narrow their cause.

Just like how Microsoft owned the operating system for the PC, Facebook now owns the social operating system for the web.

Marriage.com - I wish it were there when we planned our wedding

Marriage.com is not only a great domain name, it is an exceptionally useful site for people engaged to get married. According to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (why on earth do they keep these stats?) 2.2M people get married in the US every year. This is roughly seven (7) out of every 1,000 people. (Just as an FYI, three (3) out of 1,000 get divorced every year).

Marriage.com is a one-stop shop for planning the wedding. The site is developing a database of sources, resources, ideas and opinions to help make the wedding a pleasant and fun project, as opposed to a stressful, bad memory.

While my personal experience with planning a wedding, was mostly fun and exciting, I probably could have avoided some of the mistakes and snags that I encountered along the way, had Marriage.com existed in 1999... Ok, it was a while ago but, we are still married!!

We recently partnered with Marriage.com to bring one-click updates to their audience. Check out their blog!

Deals of America going Sticky

We have argued that connected users are loyal users. Users who connect with intent are also on a mission. Publishers spend significant advertising money on SEO to get users to visit their sites. Once the user is there, you want to capitalize on the investment. In retail, the average transaction is $167. This is a high-involvement exercise where the user will visit, on average, 6 web sites before purchase, not necessarily the same site. How can the publisher establish a mutually beneficial relationship on the first visit? How can the publisher increase the probability of a revisit? Today Deals of America went live with sticky deal search by IngBoo.

This feature allows the consumer to track updates to a deal search. Notifications go out when there are new deals available, for example.

TicketLuck - Event Tickets go Sticky

TicketLuck went live with IngBoo today. This is another great application of sticky search. If you are looking for a great deal on Lady Gaga, for example, just do a search and save it.

It is very easy to use this function. Enter a search term in the search field (e.g., "lady gaga"), execute the search, view the results and then track the changes using web, mobile, email, Twitter and soon Facebook.

Technorati Now Using IngBoo Web Syndication

Today, Technorati launched their new web syndication solution using the IngBoo service. They have implemented sticky search and tag tracking features.

If you do a search, the results are now displayed with an option to subscribe to changes to the search results. Look for the blueish button with "RSS" on it.

Also, under the tags tab, you can pick tags and then subscribe to updates as well.

These are two very powerful features, tied to consumer-intent.

Google to Search - IngBoo to Track

We now launched an integrated Google/IngBoo search experience on our portal at IngBoo.com. It allows you to search anything on the web via a regular Google search and then set up a sticky search for it.

First you enter your search term in the normal search window. In my example, I use "ipad". After the IngBoo results show, you will see an option to search Google.

After clicking, you will see the Google search results. You will also see a button that allows you to track the search.

Clicking on Track Search button will add the search to your subscription list for future updates.

Haiti Earthquake

The Haiti earthquake is on our minds tonight. It has been several days and people are still being found in the rubble. Help is arriving but the situation remains critical. Watching 60 minutes tonight, you could see amputations with hacksaws sterilized with Vodka and Rum. The doctors use what they have available, they are creative but it is extremely hard to watch.

We put together a bundle of some sources that regularly report on the situation. The bundle includes, among other things, a blog by a family who lives there. View the bundle at http://bit.ly/8wDYgW

You can tweet it, share on Facebook, send as an email.

IngBoo Web Start for BlackBerry Now on More Sites

Shortly after we rolled out IngBoo Web Start on BlackBerry App World, we pursued other venues as well. Today, the application is available at MobiHand, CrackBerry and PocketBerry.

Although RIMM has been late in the app store game (or, maybe because they have), there is not shortage of outlets for BlackBerry application developers.

In addition, we got our first writeup today on PocketBerry. You can read it here.

The application is generally working great. We discovered one issue related to missing or mis-configured APN settings in the device. This may affect unlocked devices, devices that are roaming or, devices that are not connected to the RIMM service (BIS) so, for the time being, we are restricting use the North American market.

IngBoo in the BlackBerry App Store

The BlackBerry version of its app store (a.k.a. Blackberry App World) has recently approved the IngBoo application. We built a native application for the Blackberry audience because it represents our target demographic. We will follow up with Android and iPhone soon.

The application now runs on Blackberry 8900, 9000, 9630 and 9700 devices. We are adding support for other models as well. With the basic support, we are reaching close to 20% of the current Blackberry users, according to AdMob's most recent statistics.

We haven't really promoted the application yet. We are therefore surprised and happy to have clocked several thousands of downloads to date. Besides BlackBerry App World, we have also submitted the application for review and publication at CrackBerry.com.

It is modelled for the mobile form factor, it is designed after the original BlackBerry killer app - email snacking and it has the fewest clicks-to-content of any content reader in the market!

If you have one of the supported devices, please download the app here and give us some feedback!

IngBoo Featured on TechNow TV

IngBoo was recently featured (again) on TV. This time on TechNow, which is a half hour television show about technology, seen on NBC stations in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego.

Just like NBC News, it was IngBoo and jobs that was the subject.

Connecting Your Blog to the Eco-System

Just like many other bloggers, we have registered the IngBoo blog with various blog directories in order to increase visibility. One interesting effect of this, is that you can search these directories for content associated with your blog, the topic you cover or other aspect of what your blog covers. We are trying such a function right now using BlogCatalog. In the right column of this site, you see an image called "Get the Buzz!. When you click on it, we set up a sticky-search for the blog search function at BlogCatalog. In our case, we search for "ingboo.com" and get updates based on what we and others say about IngBoo. While this is currently a clickable image, we are also considering developing a widget that would list the search results within the blog for the readers to enjoy. Users can see results, click to see full search results at BlogCatalog.com or setup a sticky search and get update notifications.

Share Updates via Twitter, Facebook, Email and More

We quietly updated the service a few days ago with a much improved sharing feature. You can now mouse over an update, click on "SHARE" and quickly share via Twitter, Facebook, email and any other way you want.

This is a step in our direction of being "social network friendly". The traditional email sharing is still available but the ability to single-click share via Twitter and Facebook makes it so much easier to share and comment on updates. Enjoy!

Single-Click Subscribe via Twitter

Today, we searched on Twitter for "ingboo" (we search everyday actually, since we have a persistent Twitter search in our IngBoo lists) and came across a tweet from RemBeatZ, owner of BlazingMinds blog.

All great ideas are simple and obvious once you see them. In this case, RemBeatZ had posted a tweet offering a single-click subscribe using IngBoo.

This is effectively the Twitter version of an IngBoo button. We like it!

Share Your Favs is Open for Business

We have now launched "Share Your Favs". This feature allows any user to create favorite lists of topics they like. The list is represented as a URL and can be shared via email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. While we currently only support direct sharing via email, single-click sharing with Twitter and Facebook will be there in a couple of weeks. For now, you can copy and paste the URL wherever you want. I have created a Fav List for Santa Cruz, Ca where I live. You can check it out here.

We want your feedback on this feature so try it out. There can even be a reward for it!!

Chennaionline Launched

Today, Chennaionline launched new services aimed at providing more value to their users.

To accomplish this, they are using two IngBoo features:
1. Content bundles (a.k.a. preview micro-portal) and,
2. Sticky job search.

Chennaionline is a great example of the new online media companies that are emerging on the Internet. They use IngBoo to perfect their content subscription strategy. As you can see, their site is very well structured and free from all types of clutter. This helps the users find and engage with our relationship tools very quickly.

Share Your Favs - Upcoming Features

Very soon, IngBoo users will be able to create and share their favorite topic lists on IngBoo. Initially, we will generate a URL that can be pasted into an email, tweet, Facebook message or other message of choice. As we roll out more integrated sharing functions, you will be able to share via one-click functions, just like you share a YouTube video, for example.

You will be able to create multiple "fav lists" with your own IngBoo list as a starting point. You can add additional topics of choice to your fav list.

We will also promote the this feature. Users will be entered into a drawing to win a cool price (to be announced).

The core purpose of the Fav-Feature is to provide a tool for users (and publishers too) to quickly create and share resources that are useful to others. These bundles represent micro-portals that offer previews of great content and quick-launch to the content sources. The URLs to the micro-portals can be used on blogs and other communication to provide value to the community at large. If you want to see what a micro-portal looks like, try the real-estate micro-portal here.