Dave has some interesting thoughts about the success of both Google and Yahoo. The basic idea is that successful companies are ones who do not try and jail their users into their site, not letting them know about what else is available on the Web. Instead, companies send their users away and in turn, the users come back because of the value the original companies have given them.
It is this value which I find interesting and the toughest part to replicate. If Google wasn't the search engine it is, it wouldn't matter if they sent people away because no one would use them. I go back to Google because I know there is a 98% probability I will find what I'm looking for, no matter where on the Web it is located. The same is true for Yahoo and its news. It doesn't matter what publication publishes the story or what site I eventually land on, I found the headline on Yahoo and that is where I'll return.
One of the beauties of RSS is the ability it gives us to make this relationship happen without a company as a middleman. I can aggregate feeds directly, moving thru them at my own pace, following links to remote sites but still being in control. Any company that wants to have user loyalty has to give power back to the user or that company will fail at establishing any sort of relationship with their users.
Posted by Josh at December 13, 2005 12:04 AM