Scoble’s glass is half empty. He wonders why is RSS/Atom adoption so low?. Given that no one has really found the money, I think that that RSS adoption is going pretty well. After all, what pressing problem is RSS solving? And what’s that problem worth?

Yes, RSS is a more efficient way to read. And yes, RSS allows to me to subscribe to about 150 sites where I would only follow 30 or 40 sites without it. But am I really much worse off following 35 sites rather than 150? I suspect that most people are quite content with the 10 or 20 sites that they’re currently reading. They don’t need RSS. And most of the sites that offer RSS are weblogs – the easiest to follow without RSS.

Right now, reading RSS requires that people either add a new application to their desktop or a new website to their routine. Either one is a pretty big hurdle without good motivation.

I think that Microsoft and Yahoo are the players to watch. They’ve already got the eyeballs. RSS complements their existing platforms. And RSS wouldn’t have to carry the full weight of behavioral change on it’s own. Other than that, we need to wait until someone finds the money.