Ask Jeeves, Bloglines, and Search consolidation
I'm very late to the game on this one, but noteworthy for the implications alone is the Ask Jeeves acquisition of Bloglines.
“The short-term gain is that Ask Jeeves improves its search service,” said Daniel Read, vice president for products at Ask Jeeves. “The long-term gain is that a large number of people will be consuming information through blogs and RSS technologies,” he told NewsFactor.
So why? Well RSS search and categorization is a direct competitor to web based searches for content, which has been the only real option available until this new format emerged. As RSS readers and associated tools develop better search functionality such as what the work on Feedmesh could bring around, there will be less of a need for traditional HTML searches through search engines and browsers, especially if Blog content continues it's ramp up the continuim of choice for content consumers.
This goes down a path where you will see a line blurring between Blog search engines and the traditional players. RSS is an evolution to the Internet, and as stated in the CIO article, I agree with the fact that this is probably the first time in my 10+ year history of working in the Internet industry that there is a visible long-term nature to where we can expect the Internet to go, and it's looking great so far. Definitely a positive move from my perspective for everyone.
