Resistance to RSS if futile

More and more news sites are offering RSS feeds. Reuters now offers RSS feeds for at least 12 different channels. Here in Sweden the adoption rate is slow. The news sites I know have started RSS feeds so far are:


Dagens Nyheter (daily)

Expressen (tabloid)

Ny Teknik (technology trade publication)

Svenska Dagbladet (daily)

Sydvenska Dagbladet (daily)

Yelah.net (“radical digital news”)

I don’t know the reasons behind the small number of Swedish sites that offer RSS, but one thing for sure is that resistance is futile. With the help of myRSS anyone can build an RSS feed for any site, for free. I’ve tried to create a few channels of my own, and it actually works. Not on all sites, but on some. I’m not technologically savvy enough to determine what the trouble is, but it’s a little like when you create your own channels with Avantgo for your PDA. You have to pick a page that contains frequently updated items, like the press room if you want to monitor a competitor’s site.

One disturbing factor is the delay between clicking on a headline (I use Bloglines) and the actual news item or post (see graphic). But you can get around that by sponsoring the specific channel (more details on their home page). So if you are really eager to get an RSS feed for a specific site, now you can.