I’ve thought for a while now that RSS needs something big to happen (by “big” I mean a huge push by AOL or Microsoft) if it is ever to be anything more than a niche technology. My Yahoo has moved things in the right direction, and now The Guardian is trying to give a little push. Says The Guardian’s Simon Waldman: “We think that once you get beyond the early adopter crowd, the best way to bring people into RSS etc. is through leveraging existing brand relationships.”Amen.

But the most interesting thing he says is this: “So, in any RSS activity we do in the future – Newspoint included – classified [advertising] is going to play an important part.” Considering how badly eBay has hurt classified advertising, this is important. Can the newspapers use RSS to hold on to their cash cow?