The Read/Write Web has an interesting post about RSS aggregator stats which to some degree confirms my suspicions about RSS reader market share. Over the past few months, I’ve seen several posts about market share which I believed were inaccurate for many reasons, not the least of which was the fact that they really determined market share among geeks rather than the wider non-technical audience (yes, many non-techies are reading RSS now!).
In this particular example, the top aggregator being used is My Yahoo, followed by FeedDemon and then Bloglines. As Kevin Donahue points out, FeedDemon is easy to use, which makes it an obvious choice for the non-geek.
Now, I’ll be the first to admit that there’s very little you can determine about RSS reader market share when looking at a single set of feeds (and of course, basing market share on server hits is inaccurate to start with), but the fact that the results vary so widely based on which feeds are examined speaks volumes about the accuracy of these surveys.
PS: Kevin, I agree that Fanblogs should be in FeedDemon’s default set of feeds – I’ll add it to the “Sports” group in the next build. However, given the number of feeds you offer, you might want to consider providing your visitors a custom build of FeedDemon that’s pre-loaded with all of your feeds.
Hi Nick,
Interesting thoughts… re this comment you made: “…the fact that the results vary so widely based on which feeds are examined speaks volumes about the accuracy of these surveys.”
I don’t think it reflects badly on the accuracy, per se. Although I do agree that measuring RSS Aggregator market share is very tough right now and there are loads of caveats. I’ve always believed that desktop aggs are disadvantaged when it comes to these stats, for example.
However what Kevin’s stats told me very clearly is that non-geeks are using MyYahoo for RSS. I’ve seen first-hand how a lot of non-geeks use MyYahoo (seeing surfing habits of people I know, work with, etc), but up till now I’d never had any statistical ‘proof’ that they were beginning to use MyYahoo to access RSS feeds. And that it was so far ahead of the rest (esp Bloglines, which in the geek world is so dominant).
ps I must admit I don’t know a lot about FeedDemon, but I’m pleased for you that it showed up well in Kevin’s stats.
A default version is a great idea, Nick! ;) Seriously, it’s a great testament to your software that it is well received by the tech crowd AND the non-tech crowd. It’s a newsreader that my Mom could use and getting to that point while satisfying early-adopter set is a great accomplishment.
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