Of course it can be monetized! But there is still room for improvement. Just as I said to someone roughly 2 1/2 years ago, it needs to be integrated into something that we use each day without thinking about it. Today both Firefox and Internet Explorer (7) are working toward this in a mad hurry.

NEW YORK —- The most common discussion at the Syndicate Conference here is how syndicated news feeds via RSS (define) technology have changed how we get our Web-based information.

The second-most popular discussion topic: whether anyone is making any money from RSS deployments.

The first step to a business model behind RSS, said Mobius venture capitalist Seth Levine, is getting past just talking about RSS itself.

“I feel like I’m at RSS Con,” Levine snorted. “The context is broader than RSS.”

During a panel discussion called “Grokking the Big Picture” about the impact of RSS syndication on media and Web publishing, David Geller of e-mail marketing firm WhatCounts agreed.

He said RSS won’t be monetized and mainstream until people start thinking of the technology the way they think of electrical connections or plumbing.

Construction companies make money installing wiring and plumbing because they are crucial solutions to crucial problems.

People need running water and electricity to keep warm, to preserve their food, to keep clean…. Source: InternetNews.com