A growing trend to "bring the web to users" signals a fundamental change in the way we're using the web
The launch this week of Google Desktop 2 (and if you use a Windows PC but don't have it yet, I thoroughly recommend it) is part of a growing trend to "bring the web to users". And this trend signals a fundamental change in the way we're using the web. Let me explain what I mean.
First there was email. It "pushed" information to people. In many ways, it's more important than ever. However, it's actually been overtaken by the "pull" side of the internet - the web - where people choose which information they want to see.
But that's the two options covered, right? Well, no. A couple of years ago, along came RSS. This "pushes" web content of interest to us as readers (with the crucial advantage over email that we choose which web sites we want to have "pushed" to us). No longer do you have to go to websites to see if they've updated - a constantly-updated alert on your desktop shows you what's changed on your monitored sites.
Until recently, I've been sceptical about whether this technology would get widespread acceptance. It was all a bit geeky, to be honest. But I'm beginning to change my mind. Software such as the Google Desktop and Google's personalised homepage make so easy to put these "RSS feeds" on a PC that people might just actually do it.
One demonstration of how RSS might change the way we use the web can be seen by looking at what many Apple Mac users are already doing (I'm one of those people!). All decent websites have RSS feeds now, and I monitor about a dozen of them. You add them just like adding bookmarks or favourites. When I fired up my Mac this morning, the browser showed that all my monitored feeds had about 100 new articles between them. I opened a few, and here's what I saw.
As you can see, all the latest news at a glance. Most interestingly of all, it's presented in a consistent format. RSS was originally just for snappy headlines and short descriptions, but many sites now have complete multi-page articles, with photos, in their feeds. At Engineeringtalk, we've provided over three thousand such feeds, updated daily, so you can monitor news in particular product categories, or from individual manufacturers.
Whilst the RSS readers available under Windows are somewhat less elegant than the facilities built into the Mac OS, expect to see some major progressions over the next year. Like me, you may well find yourself looking at RSS feeds more than the conventional web on a daily basis. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get the ball-by-ball cricket commentary set up.
First there was email. It "pushed" information to people. In many ways, it's more important than ever. However, it's actually been overtaken by the "pull" side of the internet - the web - where people choose which information they want to see.
But that's the two options covered, right? Well, no. A couple of years ago, along came RSS. This "pushes" web content of interest to us as readers (with the crucial advantage over email that we choose which web sites we want to have "pushed" to us). No longer do you have to go to websites to see if they've updated - a constantly-updated alert on your desktop shows you what's changed on your monitored sites.
Until recently, I've been sceptical about whether this technology would get widespread acceptance. It was all a bit geeky, to be honest. But I'm beginning to change my mind. Software such as the Google Desktop and Google's personalised homepage make so easy to put these "RSS feeds" on a PC that people might just actually do it.
One demonstration of how RSS might change the way we use the web can be seen by looking at what many Apple Mac users are already doing (I'm one of those people!). All decent websites have RSS feeds now, and I monitor about a dozen of them. You add them just like adding bookmarks or favourites. When I fired up my Mac this morning, the browser showed that all my monitored feeds had about 100 new articles between them. I opened a few, and here's what I saw.
As you can see, all the latest news at a glance. Most interestingly of all, it's presented in a consistent format. RSS was originally just for snappy headlines and short descriptions, but many sites now have complete multi-page articles, with photos, in their feeds. At Engineeringtalk, we've provided over three thousand such feeds, updated daily, so you can monitor news in particular product categories, or from individual manufacturers.
Whilst the RSS readers available under Windows are somewhat less elegant than the facilities built into the Mac OS, expect to see some major progressions over the next year. Like me, you may well find yourself looking at RSS feeds more than the conventional web on a daily basis. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get the ball-by-ball cricket commentary set up.
posted by Chris on Thursday, August 25, 2005
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