People on the post's comments are suggesting that RSS only has technical followers.
Really we should be talking about feeds and subscriptions. Wording needs to be friendlier: add my friend's feed or follow Kate Bush. It doesn't matter what the technology is so much underneath. RSS and Atom are meaningless to the general public and only confuse matters. But I think they'd grok the idea of following an interest or person, or giving feedback to a post, a thing, or a happening.
I'd actually rather a de-centralised platform. And prefer a glorious feed organiser.
Very simple open comment/status feed APIs would be more beneficial for the community at large with a pub/sub mechanism that was easy to understand and utilise.
Add an RSS feed for a news website, add a Twitter feed, or friend, add a Facebook (channel for a better word), or whatever. Organise these somehow. Integrate privacy controls. This would probably suit a next generation browser rather than an online silo.
Multiple account use is borked. I was logged in under one account the other day, but wanted to leave a Youtube comment from another. But it just wasn't possible at the time. I gave up in the end. The UI is a disparate mess. I am not a fan of the one account rules all doctrine, especially when I can't switch to another with ease. I perceive myself as a competent web user, I've been surfing the web since Netscape on Win 3.1. Fail.
The killer app for video calling, would be one in which you don't have to hold the camera. We'd rather place the phone to our ear. And the current alternative is probably nostril cam. We each need a Lakitu.
I don't want someone to see me unless there is a reason. All of a sudden I have to worry about whether I look like I'm paying attention (I'm probably not), what I look like (I'll take a phone call in my Pjs, I wouldn't take a video call), whether I'm doing something that looks unappealing and so on.
Video offers additional benefits but they come with a "price". For me personally it seems as if that given that price you've got to be in a position where the benefit is worth it.
The only app I installed on the Blackberry (my brief foray into smartphones...), was the independent app (newspaper), and I preferred accessing news through that than the website. A very simple interface that let me get to news quickly. I could even download the news up front over WIFI and then read it on the train without a data connection.
But then I don't want to have to download an app for every news outet. So you start thinking perhaps there should be a general news app and so on. One general app feels a little more managable.
That and the apparent insecurity, or my own personal lack of understanding of application security that puts me off of even owning something like an Android device. For now I'm more comfortable with web pages.
It's difficult enough managing bookmarks. I'd feel hemmed in with apps on a smartphone, if I had to order icons, select and install applications. I don't think I could be bothered.
Having said that it has pretty much always been about the software. If I was compelled enough, I'd take the rough with the smooth.
It feels that Desktop apps are sorely neglected. Spotify for example feels really ancient, a weird UI for such a popular product. I only assume the mobile versions are more logical and easier to use. I wouldn't want to immitate the desktop versions. So I read your comment as somethnig like the immitation of Apple's cover flow. And yes in that way I agree.
Do you think it's the lack of standardisation of menuing/navigation/paging in web pages/sites that isn't helping matters?
Really we should be talking about feeds and subscriptions. Wording needs to be friendlier: add my friend's feed or follow Kate Bush. It doesn't matter what the technology is so much underneath. RSS and Atom are meaningless to the general public and only confuse matters. But I think they'd grok the idea of following an interest or person, or giving feedback to a post, a thing, or a happening.