Don Marti

Tue 20 May 2014 06:59:09 AM PDT

A non-creepy ad niche

Here's an example of the kind of online advertising that can emerge in the absence of third-party tracking: In Defense of Publishers on the Old Reader blog. Explaining why Old Reader won't get in the way of ads by adding filtering capabilities:

It’s easy to imagine lots of sites would stop syndicating if RSS became just a hole in their business model.

Besides, the publisher-driven ad model we’re supporting is much healthier than what is emerging on the social platforms. The reader/aggregator/social networks are taking most of the ad revenue and making it hard for the publisher to get their share....

We talk a lot about keeping the web open, neutral, and as free as possible from the insidious influence of advertising. It’s part of our belief in the power of technology to connect our users, deliver them the content they want and with the best possible experience.

But advertising is part of the world we live in. There has to be an acceptable level, or there will be a lot less content worth reading.

Yes, RSS is a tiny niche, but it's worth asking why it doesn't have the same privacy tools debate as HTML does. Did RSS clients get some privacy design decisions right, when web browsers didn't?

Read the whole thing.

Bonus link: Dave Winer on RSS ads, from 2005