1 – RSS will become mainstream. I wrote just the other day that “RSS needs to become brain dead simple to use” before it will bust out. And it’s nowhere close to that now. But it will become “brain dead simple” because it’s a very simple and powerful technology like http, smtp, etc before it. Apple has already made subscribing to podcasts via RSS in iTunes “brain dead” simple. And Microsoft is going to make RSS subscriptions “native” in the upcoming Vista operating sytem. MyYahoo has made subscribing to RSS very close to “brain dead simple” in its web service. And others are working on this problem as well. We don’t know if it will be one year, two years, or three years before “soccer moms, myspace kids, construction workers, and grandmothers” are using RSS every day, but it’s going to happen.

2 – The RSS channel will be monetized “in the medium” like every other medium. I remember when people thought the web was going to be a tool to drive traffic to offline where it could be monetized. That didn’t happen. Now people think of RSS as a medium to drive traffic to the web where it will be monetized. Some of that is happening, but all mediums develop their own native monetization systems and so will RSS. This is where FeedBurner is key. They are leading the way, by a very wide margin, in developing a business around RSS content. They provide the best and simplest way to market your feed. They provide the best and easiest to understand analytics around what your feed audience is. And they have built the first and by far the largest advertising network designed specifically for RSS feeds.