• November 16, 2005

Yahoo! on Tuesday said the 2,000-some publishers participating in its publisher network beta can now serve their readers ads via Really Simple Syndication feeds. While the process is still in its infancy, it could one day create an additional revenue stream for small to medium-sized publishers, said Ben Fox, a senior product manager at Yahoo!

"RSS has great potential for publishers because it's so targeted," said Fox. "So we're giving publishers the tools to realize that potential."

Yahoo! provides its publishers with free reports containing information on click-through rates and impressions. Yahoo! and research company Ipsos Insight published a study in October showing the still-emerging state of RSS. Only 12 percent of Internet users recognize RSS by name, they reported. Yahoo! also reported, however, that nearly one in three--27 percent--of Internet users consume RSS content--without realizing that they're even using an RSS service.