• by brian.w , Shimon Sandler , June 30, 2005

RSS is still in an early-adoption stage. And, if RSS is a game of follow the leader, then MSN and Yahoo! are the leaders and Google is the follower. But, look out. In their usual innovative fashion, Google has incorporated an RSS reader into Gmail. It's called Web Clips, and it's on top of the screen. Not everybody has it. Google automatically subscribes you to the RSS feeds from Ask Yahoo!, Engadget, and Reuters: Oddly Enough. Of course, Google rotates sponsored advertising from Adsense throughout the feeds.

However, Web Clips doesn't have all the features of a typical RSS reader. Basically, the only thing you can see is one feed headline at a time, and Google decides when and how to alternate them; the user does have the option of adding personal feeds. All in all, it's a pretty weak excuse for an RSS aggregator. But look out...

My guess is that we are getting a taste of what's to come. In its present form, Google's Gmail Web Clips is lagging behind the pack. So, what does Google have up its sleeve?

Possibly, they might roll out a robust RSS aggregator that will be integrated into Gmail where you can get your e-mail and RSS feeds from one platform. No one has that. If Google went this route, they could take advantage of their search technology to implement an advanced search function for all RSS feeds.

Who knows, maybe Google will start indexing RSS feeds for a sort of vertical search engine. How about giving us the ability to subscribe to any RSS feed by just one click. Wouldn't that be cool?

Rumor has it that Google has a new Web browser. What if Google integrates Gmail and RSS into their new browser? Look out Bill Gates.

Also, Google recently launched AdSense for RSS publishers. So, what if Google develops contextual RSS feeds that appear in your RSS aggregator in a similar fashion as Adsense appeared in Gmail when Gmail was initially launched. It seems like a natural evolution of Adsense.

As you can see, the possibilities are numerous. The 800-pound gorilla of search is poised to become the 800-pound gorilla of RSS.