RSS is Dead

English: Don't Panic towel (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Welcome to the 21st Century

Given all this hoopla about Google amputating Reader from their line of products, it is probably time to ask the question: Is Real Simple Syndication (RSS) dead? An article from Business Insider seems to suggest that it is.

My library coursework has promoted RSS as a futuristic technology that delivers information right to the end-user. I have built CMS pages and blogs and burned the feeds so that people can receive my articles as soon as I publish them. But are we wrong? 

Business Insider seems to suggest that Social Media services (Twitter) is killing off RSS as a viable end-user product. RSS may still find a home in the back end, but it is no longer a product that users, ahem, use. Note that most of the products purporting to be alternatives to Google Reader integrate your social media timelines into the application!

I have always felt that the RSS technology was antiquated in light of Social Media and other on-demand services. I think librarians should be aware of potential change on the horizon and flexible enough to jump on the wave of innovation.

Opinion wanted: do you think RSS is dead? Maybe it's just a little dead? Maybe it's just dead to the end-user? Well, go on and tell me in a comment. I wanna know!