Blogs and RSS May Not Be As Popular As Everyone Thinks

August 5, 2005

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Blogs and RSS May Not Be As Popular As Everyone Thinks

Forrester Research has released a new study that finds that Blog and RSS technology may not be used by as many people as some would like to believe. Duncan Riley of

Twenty-nine percent of North American households connected to the Internet using broadband connections in 2004, up from 19 percent in 2003.

Broadband access will more than double this decade, reaching 71 million US households in 2010. This growth will be spurred by providers like SBC and Comcast, which target tech pessimists with lower prices, better in-home support, and a clearer statement of benefits.

Only 8.8 percent of US households have a home network today, dominated by households with multiple PCs and broadband access to the Internet. Benefits like surfing the Internet while watching TV, shopping in the kitchen, and listening to digital music in the living room will drive home networking adoption to 46.5 million households by 2010.

Last year, MP3 player adoption more than doubled to 10.8 million of US households; 15 million US households bought digital cameras; and 8 million households purchased laptops.

Today, only 6 percent of online consumers read blogs and 2 percent use RSS, while 70 percent of online consumers use the Internet to research products for purchase. Marketers should focus on identifying the early-adopting tech optimists who read blogs to tap effective viral marketing opportunities.

Households with a laptop and home network watch three fewer hours of TV per week and read the paper an hour less per week than offline households do.

"The rise of consumers' adoption of personal devices, home networking, and broadband, combined with the increasing importance of the Internet in media, retail, banking, and healthcare, means that every consumer-facing industry must better understand the intricacies of technology adoption and use," says Forrester Research Vice President Ted Schadler. "Missing from most marketers' toolboxes is an understanding that consumers' attitudes toward technology determine a lot about how they receive marketing messages, get service online, adopt new technologies, and spend their time," he added. In regards to the blogs and RSS, as Riley pointed out in

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