Last night we had dinner with an interesting guy named John Rodsett who is a movie producer and a former professor of Sachi’s. Among other things, we talked about our mutual love of TiVo and I spent a little time talking about RSS. During the conversation it occurred to me how much TiVo and RSS (including RSS aggregators) are similar. Some notes:
- TiVo makes TV watching easier and more manageable
- RSS makes web reading easier and more manageable
- TiVo helps you focus on shows that interest you most
- RSS helps you focus on web sites that interest you most
- TiVo is focused on what's going to appear in the future
- RSS is focused in what's going to appear in the future
- TiVo helps you skip commercials
- RSS helps you skip commercials
- TiVo works on a subscription model
- RSS works on a subscription model
- TiVo is on-demand
- RSS is on-demand
- TiVo enables you to save a personal list shows you can’t watch for a while
- RSS enables you to save a personal list of web articles you can’t read for a while
- TiVo has throngs of enthusiastic customers
- RSS has throngs of enthusiastic users
- TiVo is disrupting the TV advertising industry
- RSS is disrupting the web advertising industry
- TiVo turns TV from a flow to a stock
- RSS turns the web from a stock to a flow
- TiVo acts as a personal filter for content
- RSS acts as a personal filter for content
There are also a couple of things that TiVo does that RSS aggregators don't, but I wish they did.
- TiVo knows what I like and suggests/records new things automatically
- TiVo gets rid of the old stuff I didn’t watch, but warns me first