Ross notes that Newsgator got funded recently.
There I noticed a trackback from rtwodtwo's posting:
I never thought RSS programs would get VC’s cash. What do they think their exit will be? What revenue will this software have? Selling it to the warez loving public? Looking at its download.com count (<2000 downloads) the VC decision to invest looks very very strange.
Well, I'm not sure what download.com has to do with this. RSS software isn't at the point yet where people go to download.com looking for it. But the larger issue clearly is that we're seeing signs that this RSS stuff is getting interest from early investors. Why?
I have a few ideas on that. One is that there's still a lot of money sitting on the sidelines just waiting to find a small company or product that has a chance of doing something profitable. I really don't think these guys are crazy enough to think that they're investing in the next Netscape or Yahoo. But they do sense that there's something going on here.
This RSS stuff isn't just about blogging and cat pictures [anymore]. As I predicted, it's going mainstream. Whenever you see something that has a good community behind it and that is quickly being adopted by the largest on-line players as well as more traditional media companies, there's something there: potential.
Investors don't always know if that potential will fizzle or continue to grow into a large market. But they're all about making bets. And RSS looks like one of the better bets this year.
Posted by jzawodn at June 24, 2004 01:11 AM
if RSS gets integrated into the next Outlook Express or IE , just watch it EXPLODE...
maybe that's what the VCs are thinking about. We've got all the tools already in Linux - and there's a few RSS readers in Windows as well.
But it's definitely not hit the mass market just yet.
It's true, Google are building an incredible platform (http://blog.topix.net/archives/000016.html).
One thing worries me though: If I were asked to name the single, biggest asset of the Internet, my first response would describe its decentralisation. The Google platform, unfortunately, is very much centralised. I appreciate that its architecture virtually ensures that the platform cannot fallover, but I'm still cautious of the centralisation.
It's certainly a step in the right direction though.
My comment (above) relates to this entry, not this one. Sorry about that, I clicked the wrong comments link. :-(
I think the market will move toward centralized web-based tools that will run on the intranet, handle authentication, manage a user-specific history/library of stuff, etc.
