@mishaderidder @pluralistic
RSS doesn't have any middle agent between you and that site/org/biz/friend you wanted to hear from. No middle with monopolist directing your eyeballs: "... Dave, you must look there."

@mikalai @mishaderidder @pluralistic Which is *exactly* why Google had to kill Google Reader back in the day: it was undercutting their ad monetization strategy.

@cstross @mikalai @mishaderidder @pluralistic I worked at Google back then and it was more complicated than that. Reader had serious security problems with JavaScript in RSS and it used too many Mustang machines for the number of users it had. It was also one of the many conflicting social platforms at the time they were trying to unify around Google+.