RSS for marketing and public service

At present the most visible use of RSS Feeds is to send out the latest news and blog posts to subscribers: This is what we see everyday. There are of course other uses. And one of them is to use it as a marketing tool. Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based software company WrapMail Inc. has developed a software that allows emails to have borders or “wraps” that can display pictures or ads – similar to what we now see at websites. The software was designed to be used for marketing, advertising and promotion. One of its features is that it uses RSS to update the “wraps”. The company offers the service to corporate clients and consultants. If you want to see how this works you can try it for free at MyWrapMail.com. A twist in the story happened recently when the company announced that it will begin placing free Amber Alerts on corporate email. An Amber Alert is a public notification about a child’s abduction and the program has been successful in recovering more than 324 abducted children in the United States. The Amber Alert will be placed at the bottom of the customer wrap and will be updated using RSS – both as a marketing tool and as public service. It would be interesting to see the other uses of RSS at present and in the future.