(Disclosure on involvement in this general space.)
It’s no secret that I’m passionate about Search and see RSS (well, Feeds in general) as the next wave in the industry, likely having as disruptive an impact on (careless) established Internet players as online has had to offline players over the past five years. (It’s also no secret that plenty of folks who are far smarter than I am have the same or similar view… they just aren’t as open or blunt about it
Today’s news is further validation on both fronts. According to this press release from Feedster, the Omidyar Network (as in Pierre Omidyar, founder/chairman of eBay fame) has become the latest Angel investor in Feedster.
As I wrote in the piece linked to, above, when word “leaked” on some of Feedster’s backers, I have some significant doubts around investments in this space:
“Still, it’s important to understand how ‘smart’ the money is going into these companies, as their ability to stand alone in the wake of the Search Giants waking up and taking RSS seriously is an open question (at least in my mind).
So what do you think? Do you see Feedster, Technorati, PubSub, Bloglines, Pheedo, TypePad, Feedburner et al around 3-5 years from now? Or will their foundation in open standards (RDF/XML/RSS, etc) lead to quick commoditization (or, perhaps, “cheap” acquisition) by Yahoo, Google and Microsoft?”
While I still see significant consolidation/M&A as (highly) likely in this space, the answer around the ‘smartness’ of the money feels like it’s been answered in spades.
(BTW, I didn’t comment on it last week, but SiliconBeat did a good job covering Newsgator’s follow-on round.)