10% Of Blog Readers Use Feeds

Posted on August 16, 2005

Slighty over ten percent of blog readers use RSS feeds according to a new Nielsen//NetRatings survey. 4.9% used feed aggregation software and 6.4% used feed aggregation websites. However, 50% did not even know what RSS feeds were so there is a big opportunity for RSS growth. 23% of weblog readers said they were aware of RSS feeds and what they can do but chose not to use them -- these people may be happy just surfing blogs like websites and see not need for RSS and aggregators. Blog popularity continues to grow and vnunet.com reports on the survey's finding that the top 50 blogs grew by over 30% since January, 2005.

Nielsen//NetRatings found that the top 50 blogging and blog-related sites grew in popularity 31 per cent to attract 29.3m unique visitors during July 2005 as compared to the beginning of this year.

Leading the way, MSN Spaces was found to be ranked number one in year-to-date unique audience growth with a 947 per cent increase on nearly 3.3m visitors in July. Fark.com and Blogger ranked second and third with 63 per cent and 45 per cent unique audience growth, respectively.