{"id":91369,"date":"2009-12-20T23:04:35","date_gmt":"2009-12-21T04:04:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.readwriteweb.com\/archives\/rss_reader_market_in_disarray.php"},"modified":"2009-12-20T23:04:35","modified_gmt":"2009-12-21T04:04:35","slug":"rss-reader-market-in-disarray-continues-to-decline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/91369","title":{"rendered":"RSS Reader Market in Disarray, Continues to Decline"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.readwriteweb.com\/images\/Picture%2062.png\" \/>One of the interesting trends of 2009 has been  <strong>the gradual decline of RSS Readers<\/strong> as a way for people to keep up with news and niche topics. Many of us still use them, but less than we used to. I for one still maintain a Google Reader account, however I don&#8217;t check it on a daily basis. I check Twitter for news and information multiple times a day, I monitor Twitter lists, and I read a number of blogs across a set of topics of most interest to me. <\/p>\n<p><font style=\"float: right; margin-left: 10px;\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\ntweetmeme_url = 'http:\/\/www.readwriteweb.com\/archives\/rss_reader_market_in_disarray.php';\ntweetmeme_source = 'rww';\n<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/tweetmeme.com\/i\/scripts\/button.js\"><\/script><\/font>Frankly I&#8217;m more likely to use Google Reader to <em>search<\/em> for specific information nowadays, than to scan my subscribed feeds for their latest posts. So what&#8217;s happened to RSS Readers. Do people still use them and is there still a viable market for them?<\/p>\n<p align=\"right\"><em>Sponsor<\/em><br \/><a href='http:\/\/d.ads.readwriteweb.com\/ck.php?n=a6d5ead9&amp;cb=17505' ><img src='http:\/\/d.ads.readwriteweb.com\/avw.php?zoneid=14&amp;cb=17505&amp;n=a6d5ead9' border='0' alt='' \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.readwriteweb.com\/archives\/best_web_20_com.php\">In February 2007<\/a> we reported on the state of the RSS Reader market, based on statistics from Feedburner and Pheedo. At that point Google had 59% market share amongst web-based RSS Readers, followed by Bloglines with 33%, then Newsgator and Netvibes with 3% (note: this didn&#8217;t count Newsgator&#8217;s desktop apps, like FeedDemon). Pheedo&#8217;s stats in February 2007 were somewhat different: Newsgator Online had 27% share, followed by MyYahoo! with 20%, Blogines 19% and Google Reader 13%.<\/p>\n<p>The first time ReadWriteWeb looked into market share for RSS Readers was 5 years ago, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.readwriteweb.com\/archives\/rss_reader_mark.php\">in December 2004<\/a>. At that point, very early in the web 2.0 era, Bloglines was the clear leader and Google Reader wasn&#8217;t even a glint in the milkman&#8217;s eye. <\/p>\n<h2>2009 Update on RSS Reader Market<\/h2>\n<p>Well, unfortunately Feedburner no longer publishes any useful data about RSS Readers. The product has been infrequently updated since <a href=\"http:\/\/www.readwriteweb.com\/archives\/google_feedburner_official.php\">Google acquired it in June 2007<\/a> and it no longer even has a proper blog (a Google blog called <a href=\"http:\/\/adsenseforfeeds.blogspot.com\/\">Adsense For Feeds<\/a> was the closest I could find).<\/p>\n<p>Pheedo also has gone quiet from a blogging perspective &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pheedo.info\/archives\/2009\/01\/top_10_ideas_to.html\">its last blog post<\/a> was January 2009. Tellingly though, it has <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/pheedo\">an active Twitter account<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The best data we have then is ReadWriteWeb&#8217;s own Feedburner account. Here is the top 10 for Dec 09:<\/p>\n<p>1. Google Feedfetcher\t85665 (includes both Google Reader and its start page iGoogle)<br \/>\n  2. Bloglines\t38797<br \/>\n  3. Netvibes\t34894<br \/>\n  4. FriendFeed\t16269<br \/>\n5. NewsGator Online\t6753<br \/>\n  6. Firefox Live Bookmarks\t2999<br \/>\n  7. PostRank\t2454<br \/>\n  8. Windows RSS Platform\t1587<br \/>\n  9. Mac OS X RSS Reader\t1307<br \/>\n10. Zhuaxia\t1127 (a Chinese RSS Reader)<\/p>\n<p>Feedburner&#8217;s numbers always need to be taken with a large grain of salt, nevertheless we can see that Google is now over twice the number of Bloglines. There&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bloglines.com\/about\/news\">little sign of life on Bloglines&#8217; blog<\/a> either and its Compete.com traffic numbers show <a href=\"http:\/\/siteanalytics.compete.com\/bloglines.com\/\">a decline since June 2009<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/grapher.compete.com\/bloglines.com_uv_460.png\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Netvibes, FriendFeed, Newsgator and PostRank are the only other english language competitors showing in our Feedburner numbers. The others are either browser (Firefox) or operating system readers.<\/p>\n<p>Also note that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.readwriteweb.com\/archives\/newsgator_shuts_down_its_online_feed_reader.php\">Newsgator shut down its online RSS Reader<\/a> at the end of July this year.<\/p>\n<h2>Conclusion: Google Dominates, RSS Readers  Less Relevant<\/h2>\n<p>These statistics are by no means the definitive RSS Reader market numbers. They do clearly show two things though:<\/p>\n<p><strong>1) Google now dominates what&#8217;s left of the RSS Reader market.<\/strong> Bloglines is hanging in there, but it seems like it&#8217;s given up the fight judging by lack of activity in its blog and traffic dips.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2) RSS reading is a very fragmented experience circa 2009.<\/strong> People can monitor news and information via Twitter, Facebook, start pages like Netvibes, their Firefox bookmarks, their OS, aggregators like Techmeme, and so on. <\/p>\n<p>Tell us in the comments how you currently read your RSS feeds and how often you check them in an RSS Reader &#8211; if indeed you still use one&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><b>Update:<\/b> I should add that our <em>news writers<\/em> use a variety of RSS Readers daily.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.readwriteweb.com\/archives\/rss_reader_market_in_disarray.php#comments-open\">Discuss<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~at\/IqvTAGGKF8iwo7BL0bsKRRif-bA\/0\/da\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~at\/IqvTAGGKF8iwo7BL0bsKRRif-bA\/0\/di\" border=\"0\" ismap=\"true\"><\/img><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~at\/IqvTAGGKF8iwo7BL0bsKRRif-bA\/1\/da\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~at\/IqvTAGGKF8iwo7BL0bsKRRif-bA\/1\/di\" border=\"0\" ismap=\"true\"><\/img><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"feedflare\">\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/readwriteweb?a=vjc8ji_X7b0:uEHcf0nM3E0:FFnlKYwJmN0\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/readwriteweb?d=FFnlKYwJmN0\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/readwriteweb?a=vjc8ji_X7b0:uEHcf0nM3E0:Ij26kaj3iuU\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/readwriteweb?d=Ij26kaj3iuU\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/readwriteweb?a=vjc8ji_X7b0:uEHcf0nM3E0:C2pbw5bZMiI\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/readwriteweb?d=C2pbw5bZMiI\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/readwriteweb?a=vjc8ji_X7b0:uEHcf0nM3E0:yIl2AUoC8zA\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/readwriteweb?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/readwriteweb?a=vjc8ji_X7b0:uEHcf0nM3E0:V_sGLiPBpWU\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/readwriteweb?i=vjc8ji_X7b0:uEHcf0nM3E0:V_sGLiPBpWU\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/readwriteweb?a=vjc8ji_X7b0:uEHcf0nM3E0:gIN9vFwOqvQ\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/readwriteweb?i=vjc8ji_X7b0:uEHcf0nM3E0:gIN9vFwOqvQ\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/readwriteweb?a=vjc8ji_X7b0:uEHcf0nM3E0:F7zBnMyn0Lo\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/readwriteweb?i=vjc8ji_X7b0:uEHcf0nM3E0:F7zBnMyn0Lo\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/readwriteweb?a=vjc8ji_X7b0:uEHcf0nM3E0:OqabYuBsmOY\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/readwriteweb?d=OqabYuBsmOY\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/readwriteweb\/~4\/vjc8ji_X7b0\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the interesting trends of 2009 has been the gradual decline of RSS Readers as a way for people to keep up with news and niche topics. Many of us still use them, but less than we used to. I for one still maintain a Google Reader account, however I don&#8217;t check it on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":549,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/549"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91369\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}