Feedster: The Syndication Engine

Today’s column is on Feedster, which turned out to be a far different piece than I expected. What I thought was a blog search engine is really an RSS syndication engine. That might be a little muddled in summary, but with any luck the article explains the concept.

What is Feedster? It depends on whom you ask. On Feedster’s site, the company writes, "Feedster is foremost a search engine." Yet when I asked Feedster President Chris Redlitz whether he’s concerned about Google or Yahoo! dominating his business, he said, "If we were just a search engine, we’d be much more concerned. We’re really much more of a syndication business." Feedster, the search and syndication engine, specializes in aggregating RSS feeds, the behind-the-scenes backbone used by blogs and a rapidly growing variety of content ranging from major news sources to classified listings.

This is how a niche search engine aims to stay competitive: by specializing its focus and differentiating its model.

Read more at MediaPost, my ever-wonderful publisher.

And, ahem, yes, the attribution at the bottom of the column has changed. I’ll blog about that more when I’m able.