I’m here with Russell Shaw (he’s been wanting to visit me at PodTech, just so happens it was on a day he got known for some big news about Google and eBay — his article is the top link on TechMeme for this, second only to the other Google stuff).

The news he talked about the news was that Google and eBay signed an advertising deal to do click-to-call functionality within ads that run on Google.

Anyway, Russell writes about VoIP so he’s one of the first guys I look to when something happens in that industry.

Dead 2.0 reminds us that the cup is way empty when it comes to RSS knowledge or usage.

Hmmm. The thing is back in 2000 it was “.0000001%.”
In 2006 it is “2%.”

That’s pretty sizeable growth. And the doubling effect continues.

Next year IE 7 ships with an RSS aggregator. Last week Maryam started using RSS for the first time.

Remember the old saw? Would you rather have $100,000 today or a penny doubled every day for a month?

I can hang out and watch the doubling effect.

Why is RSS usage going to continue to double? Influencers are doing it. As long as the cool kids who go to FOOcamp keep using RSS the rest of us will start catching on and doing it too. Just watch.

Where’s the business opportunity? Well, if the doubling effect continues, let’s meet back here again in 2010 and compare who won and lost this game.

Every new technology has been derided this way. Remember when Ken Olsen, CEO of DEC, said “there is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home?”*

That’s the same sentiment that’s coming up here. On the other hand, if everyone instantly “got it” there wouldn’t be any business opportunity, would there?

*Yes, I realize Ken was quoted out of context back in 1977, the Snopes article that quote links to explains how that happened. Still, I’ve heard this over and over again throughout my career. It’s why big companies miss small things that then later go on to be important.

If the big company announces something why don’t you take advantage of it and point out what you do better than the big company? That’s what Intermedia.net just did by posting “New Google service offers 24/0 support for business users.” I linked to it because it shows why I am advocating for Podtech to switch to hosted Exchange instead of sticking with Google’s suite of services.

On the other hand, check out how Steve Gillmor enters the conversation with “Beam me up, Sergey” where he posits “can we start watching more carefully who insists the Google Office strategy doesn’t exist?”

Back at ya!

Oh, aside, how did a Microsoft employee (Dare) take over top billing on TechMeme a few minutes ago on a story about Google? Damn him for taking over the conversation! Heheh.

Yeah, I can hear the PR folks in Mountain View, CA, popping the corks on their wine bottles saying “who cares, we got the New York Times!” while forgetting all the influencers that brought Google to this party in the first place.