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RSS allows individuals to sign up for virtually any kind of new content feed from a website and permit that information to be downloaded to a ‘reader' on the individual's computer.
Some of the earliest attributions of RSS were for Netscape users. However, when AOL purchased Netscape support for this feature was removed from the system.
There was even a controversy as to who actually had ownership of the RSS feed idea.
Today you will find audio, video, news and knowledge-based text being automatically sent to RSS subscribers without the need for these individuals to rediscover the originating website.
The reasons RSS has tremendous marketing potential is that it can serve as a means of more definitely targeting a core groups of site enthusiasts.
When a visitor clicks on the RSS emblem on your website they are saying they want to be informed when new data is placed on your site. This is important because it goes beyond simply signing up to be informed of any specials through email marketing. RSS users are saying they are interested enough in what you have available that they want to remain in the loop on new developments within your site.
When audio or video is accessed through an RSS feed that video or audio is downloaded to the recipients account for playback. These Internet users don't have to wonder when something new is available and they don't have to worry about download times it is taken care of automatically.
If you were to go to a furniture store and request a certain type of furniture the company may have to special order the merchandise and then call you when it arrived to make arrangements for delivery.
Imagine what as RSS feed could do for shopping. Customers can be informed, free products can be downloaded automatically and the customer remains pleased that they were among the first to gain access to the latest information or download.
This same scenario is happening for news sources, sports sites and millions of other consumer oriented websites around the world.
To think, RSS might have gone away completely, but there were a few who believed in the potential of RSS. As more and more websites caught the vision for how RSS feeds could improve their online visibility the service returned, was embraced and became a new standard in on time delivery on the web.