Second, you’re quite right about geeky terms. As Shel Holtz likes to point out, most people who use e-mail don’t think of themselves as using “SMTP”. People use RSS without having the faintest idea that they’re doing so.

When someone subscribes to a podcast in iTunes it was probably delivered via RSS. When Web designers repurpose content, for instance by listing the lasted blog headlines on the home page of a Web site, they are often using RSS.

Feeds are being consumed but consumers just don’t know what technology is making this happen. On a simpler level many Web users don’t even know what Web browser they are using. They just know that they click something to connect to the Internet.

Given that, it doesn’t seem particularly informative to ask consumers about it. One might as well ask the general public whether string theory will be the unifying theory for physics. Most of us simply don’t know enough about the topic to give reasoned input.

I agree – for consumers, it’s all about how to make relevant in their lives and completely invisible. In marketing speak, consumers want the RSS benefit and less about the technology behind it. RSS makes it easy to put filtered news in people’s hands where they don’t expect it. Think newsfeed on your Wii, or Google alerts on “Paul M. Banas” sent to your phone, or news sites like Topix.com.

I worked at Yahoo when things like this had to all be done manually, and completely invisible to the consumer.

I think this is a great opportunity for the Googles, Apples, Microsofts, and Yahoos of this world to sit down with consumers and develop something that makes RSS like falling off a log. Then its relevancy will be able to move beyond the geekster audience.