We did an incredible joint interview on RSS metrics last week with Dick Costolo of Feedburner and Stuart Watson of Syndicate IQ, two of the handful of companies that are leading the RSS metrics way.

Feedburner is bringing RSS metrics and some other specific RSS tools to the masses, while Syndicate IQ is more focused on the enterprise level. Naturally, both of these companies have different approaches to RSS metrics and one of our goals was to discover what approach is best suited for what situation.

The interview got so huge and we covered so many interesting topics that we’re braking it down in to several parts, with the first one covering the comparison between RSS metrics based on unique RSS feed URLs and RSS metrics conducted through ‘’static” RSS feeds.

RSS Metrics Focus: Interview With Dick Costolo and Stuart Watson, Part 1 - Different RSS Metrics Approaches

There are many burning questions about the pros and cons of each approach, and Dick and Stuart give in-depth answers and ideas to help us come up with the best solutions for our own company.

More specific topics covered:

a] How does using unique URL feeds work for RSS metrics?

b] How does Feefurber specifically track RSS usage?

c] What are the advantages and disadvantages of each approach?

d] What happens when a unique URL feed is syndicated more widely, instead of being used by just one person?

e] Why are these two companies taking completely different directions to RSS metrics?

f] Are RSS feeds in themselves highly targeted channels, or do we really need dynamic content targeting?

g] What is the future of RSS targeting and personalization?

For instance, using unique URL feeds make possible connecting RSS feed usage on an individual level with existing user registration data, which makes possible more targeted advertising, content targeting and customer profile building. Furthemore, unique URLs make targeting and personalization possible.

But then, there are some problems here as well, for instance what happens when a unique URL feed is syndicated to more than just one person. Is that a problem or not? And what, in this case, happens to feed targeting and personalization?

On the other hand, Dick has a different view of targeting and personalization, believing mostly that RSS feeds are in nature highly targeted. Dick’s reasoning is that if you want to easily target RSS content without facing difficulties you should just create separate feeds for each of the targets.

And certainly, one difference between the two approaches, at least in terms of these two companies, is that Feedburner is a mass market solution, while Syndicate IQ is more focused on media publishers and enterprise RSS marketing.

Get the interview here.