There is no question that the media is keen to adopt a new communications option, and RSS most certainly can comply. RSS, termed a lightweight content syndication technology, offers many advantages over streaming and e-mail, and for the consumer, no more difficult to access as the RSS readers are akin to e-mail clients (Byrne, 2003). In other words, third-party Web sites can insert this content on their site through embedded RSS news readers and thus, provide active news feeds quite easily to their clientele. When devoid of all elaborate graphics and layouts, such minimalist headlines are quite easily incorporated into other Web sites. RSS allows some elements of Web sites, such as headlines, to be transmitted in unembellished form. One such alternative technology is Really Simple Syndication (RSS), previously known as Rich Site Summary. Therefore, the combination of e-mail issues, such as the increasing difficulties associated with multimedia downloads, such as delays, compression, and data integrity maintenance, could be seen as creating a demand for an alternate, effective, and secure communication methodology. In reality, this means that more than a third of e-mails, newsletters, special offers, and event announcements are not reaching their intended audience (Patch & McKinlay-Key, 2004). Further to this, recent studies suggest that up to 38% of bona fide e-mail messages are being erroneously blocked by filtering software. Many users are also becoming increasingly reticent to divulge their e-mail address for fear of an impending spam influx.

The increasing volume of spam and viruses means that e-mail users are forced into adopting new tools, such as spam-blocking and e-mail-filtering software, that attempt to prevent the tirade of unwanted e-mails.

AbstractE-mail has been one of the major reasons for the broad acceptance of the Internet, and although e-mail is still a vitally important communication tool, it suffers from an increasing number of problems as a medium for delivering information to the correct audience in a timely manner.

What is really simple syndication