American Airline Wins Web 2.0
See that RSS feed to the right. Please click and subscribe. If you don’t already use RSS then subscribing to my feed will be the start of a whole new information experience! RSS is all about information which you enjoy being delivered to you. I love RSS as I merely subscribe to my favourite Website feeds and the information is delivered to me in my chosen RSS Reader (i.e. I don’t need to visit every Website I like as all the information from these multiple websites is delivered to me in a single screen in my RSS Reader).
Have RSS, Will Travel
RSS is particularly suitable for Websites which have frequently updated content such as News and Travel Sites. Organizations and individuals also have a vested interest in providing updated content via RSS as RSS subscribers are more likely to read content as they don’t have to consciously visit the Website with the content. American Airlines (AA) for example provides a feed with their latest deals. This is obviously immensely beneficial for AA as they have an active audience when they want to promote certain routes. It is also beneficial for me as the consumer as I am able to find out what deals are available. I now see the various deals as published by AA and am more likely to fly with that airline than another where I don’t get RSS updates.
So why don’t more Websites provide RSS feeds?
I have been driven crazy in the past few days while searching many Airline and official travel/tourist websites; Most official tourism websites, as well as airline and hotel websites do not have RSS feeds. WTF!!! For example, I’d love to get RSS information from Only Vegas, the ‘Official Las Vegas Tourism Website’ so if I manage to get a deal to Vegas through the frequently updated AA RSS feed, I can check the Vegas Feed and see what’s on in Las Vegas. Well, somewhere else that provides an RSS feed will get my business (perhaps Vegas could increase its dwindling visitor numbers by being a bit more Web 2.0 savvy?).
I really can’t understand why websites with frequently updated information and a willing audience don’t provide RSS feeds; the demand for RSS is there so isn’t it time that Websites meet demand with supply like American Airlines does?
