One of the disadvantages of RSS reeds and the increasing numbers of people reading blogs via News Aggregators is that those bloggers running advertising on their blogs can only expose their readers to ads when those readers actually surf to the blog in question. Banner ads, amazon individual ads and ads like Google’s adsense don’t translate too well (at all) through RSS. There has been quite a bit of attention recently given to finding ways to incorporate advertising into RSS feeds in recent times to get around this problem. Moreover Technologies have just announced (see press release below) that they can now deliver such ads through RSS. Of course the revenue from these ads doesn’t seem to end up in the hands of the blogger or webmaster running the sites but in Moreover’s hands – but maybe one day we’ll see a system like Adsense (or maybe Adsense will incorporate it) that will enable contextual ads through RSS. Until then it might be worth considering ways in which you can actually draw your readers to your site from RSS.
Moreover Press Release
Moreover Technologies Announces Intelligent Delivery of Contextual Advertising In Free RSS News Feeds
Delivery to RSS news readers respects users need for high-quality aggregated news while serving relevant advertising
San Francisco, CA – September 21, 2004 – Moreover Technologies, the premier provider of aggregated online current awareness and business information, today announced the availability of free RSS (Rich Site Summary) aggregated news feeds supported by contextual advertising – ideally suited for individuals that rely on RSS news readers to track breaking online news.
Advantages of Aggregation
With the continued explosion of online news, content aggregation is becoming the most popular delivery model because it saves time, compared to manually acquiring content from individual publications, and ensures a comprehensive view into news by topic, not publication. As proof of this, a recent Nielsen//NetRatings report, Top 20 Online Current Events & Global News Destinations, confirmed that Q2 2004 was the first time an aggregated news source, Yahoo! News, was more visited than any individual news publication site such as CNN.com and USAToday.com.
“It’s clear that the aggregated news model is rapidly becoming the preferred method of online consumer news consumption,” said Jim Pitkow, chief executive officer and president of Moreover Technologies. “Moreover is the behind-the-scenes leader in aggregated news delivery, powering billions of aggregated headlines each month through our distribution network.”
By quickly aggregating content from thousands of the most relevant and reliable online sources, Moreover free RSS news feeds provide a convenient view into breaking news and current awareness. News articles are aggregated from an expansive list of publications contained in the consumer version of the Moreover CI-Metabase, including premium international and regional news sites, corporate websites, government press pages, and discussion boards.
Intelligent Advertising Delivery
Delivering contextual advertising through RSS news feeds presents some unique challenges. RSS feeds are most often viewed in a reader program that retrieves articles on a regular time interval and displays them sequentially, much like email. By working closely with the developers of leading RSS readers, Moreover is able to intelligently deliver contextual advertisements through RSS without filling a news folder with advertisements every time a feed is refreshed.
“As a pioneer in utilizing XML and a co-author of the RSS 1.0 standard, we’ve been extremely careful to ensure that the rights of end users are respected,” said Jim Pitkow, chief executive officer and president of Moreover Technologies. “By intelligently understanding how contextual advertising is delivered and displayed in various RSS readers, Moreover is able to provide the highest-quality aggregated news without spamming a feed with useless advertisements.”
Availability
A complete listing of Moreover free RSS news feeds and links to compatible RSS news readers can be found online at www.moreover.com/rss. Moreover also offers free advertising supported news feeds for display on non-commercial websites in JavaScript format at www.FeedDirect.com.
For corporations or users that require more robust news solutions without contextual advertising, Moreover offers the Connected Intelligence™ line of current awareness solutions. More information on Connected Intelligence™ can be found online at: http://www.moreover.com.
