2) Another reason is to collect reading habits of its users, which is also known as Attention Data.

Web Worker Daily discusses the specifics of how NewsGator is doing it and at a certain point compares it with the Attention Data practices of others like Google and Attensa. It really is an in interesting read.

Web Worker Daily near the end of the post had this to say about the move:

Newsgator is being more explicit about this trade than many web sites: they’ll give you useful functionality for free, and in return, they collect data on your habits which they combine with similar data and then market.
[Source]

But what is Attention Data? According to the Attention Trust Org Attention Data is:

When you pay attention to something (and when you ignore something), data is created. This “attention data” is a valuable resource that reflects your interests, your activities and your values, and it serves as a proxy for your attention.[Source]

Attention Trust and its members believe that we have the following rights regarding Attention Data:

1. Property

You own your attention and can store it wherever you wish. You have CONTROL.

2. Mobility

You can securely move your attention wherever you want whenever you want to. You have the ability to TRANSFER your attention.

3. Economy

You can pay attention to whomever you wish and receive value in return. Your attention has WORTH.

4. Transparency

You can see exactly how your attention is being used. You can DECIDE who you trust.

[Source]

One can see the economic importance of Attention Data and more importantly the need to safeguard it.

As Attention Trust blurb states:

OUR ATTENTION DATA HAS REAL VALUE AND NEEDS TO BE PROTECTED

Post from: EveryJoe

NewsGator, Free Products and Attention Data

Bloggers everywhere woke up to a nice surprise. Their feed statistics jumped overnight! How did this happen? Google is finally reporting FeedBurner statistics. Finally? Yes – they didn’t used to report numbers to Feedburner so the statistics were skewed on the downside. Bloggers could only guess what the number might be and no one had a way to compare the popularity of feed readers.

It seems that Google Reader is far out pacing Bloglines as the reader of choice. Here are some numbers from b5media as reported by Jeremy Wright, CEO:

For those who are wondering what that shift looks like, here are our top 10 feed readers, with subscriber numbers (and overall market share for our readers):

Google Feedfetcher: 14375 (29%)
Bloglines: 7774 (16%)
Firefox Live Bookmarks: 6062 (14%)
Newsgator Online: 2644 (5%)
Google Desktop: 2313 (5%)
My Yahoo: 1678 (3%)
Netvibes: 1625 (3%)
A Java-based feed reader: 1153 (3%)
Rojo: 955 (2%)
Windows RSS Platform: 779 (2%)

You can see the impact of Google’s reporting in these numbers alone. Without the Google numbers Bloglines appeared to be the winner, but with the ‘real’ numbers, it is obvious that Google is ahead by a lot.

So, it does seem like Google Reader is a winner.

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Post from: EveryJoe

RSS Stats: Google Finally Stands Up To Be Counted

HitWise researcher LeeAnn Prescott said a comparison of traffic to online newsreaders and the Web’s most popular blogs indicates that only early adopters are using the newsreaders.

The typical US Internet user has yet to adopt Web-based newsreaders for checking blogs, a Web metrics firm said Friday.

While acknowledging that her findings are not conclusive, HitWise researcher LeeAnn Prescott said a comparison of traffic to online newsreaders and the Web’s most popular blogs indicates that only early adopters – primarily businesspeople and the technology savvy ” are using the newsreaders.

This part of the report caught my eye, ‘The HitWise numbers do not take into account desktop newsreaders, such as FeedDemon, or aggregators supplied by portals, such as Yahoo. ‘

I wonder how many people are using portals like Yahoo and don’t know they are using RSS? Perhaps they think they are ‘customizing’ their ‘home page’ which is what I think Yahoo wants people to think. No intimidating words like RSS to confuse the issue.

Maybe a more interesting statistic would be, ‘How many people use a service like Yahoo to get their news or follow their favorite blogs?’ I bet the numbers would be surprising.

Post from: EveryJoe

RSS and Blogs

Post from: EveryJoe

Broadband users more likely to use RSS Feeds

Post from: EveryJoe

Get FeedBurner stats through an RSS feed!

1. Consumers Remaining Within Aggregator / News Reader Environment To View RSS Content
2. Full-Text Feeds and Summary Feeds Garner Similar Click-Through Rates
3. Summary Feed CTR Varies Widely
4. Most Publishers Opt for Summary Feeds
5. Bloglines and MyYahoo! Lead RSS Content Aggregators
6. Standalone Ads Continue to Outperform Inline Ads
7. Content Category Influences RSS Ad Performance; Niche Categories Yielding High Response Rates

And the Executive Summary:

As the RSS publishing and advertising marketplace evolves, it is important to monitor the indicators such as click-through rates, which are normalizing; RSS ad performance, which remains strong; and most importantly, how RSS consumers are interacting with feed content.

Advertisers and publishers need to engage the RSS consumer at the aggregator or feed reader level. That’s where the relationship is — not at the website. Hoping for a click-through by publishing summary feed content is not a viable content monetization strategy in an RSS-enabled publishing model. This is good news for publishers who are evaluating opportunities for RSS feed advertising, and good news for advertisers seeking to reach information consumers in this growing channel.

Post from: EveryJoe

Pheedo Feed Report 3 is here

Post from: EveryJoe

Where’s my Reefer?

Post from: EveryJoe

78% of RSS users are male

A few weeks ago I read a post about FeedSky (Chinese Feedburner), this company enables users to add advertising of Joyo in their feeds, and get revenue sharing when ads are clicked by readers. It is the first attempt in China to monetize RSS feeds.

You also wanna monetize your RSS feed? There are a few companies that provide RSS ads, these are the ones I know:

Did I miss anyone? Please let me know…
And what happened to hot start-up rssads.com?

Anyway, a new study from PQMedia expects RSS advertising to gain popularlity quickly. RSS advertising, non-existent until mid-2005, generated spending of $650,000 in 2005, but will be the fastest growing segment over the next five years!

Post from: EveryJoe

RSS Advertising

Post from: EveryJoe

JaK Attack Feedburner podcast