You Can Always Go Home
Cameron makes the argument that feeds are taking over the Web and that,
eventually, companies will just use them to communicate with customers.
The idea to simply rely on facebook.com/companyname instead of running
an independent website where content originates and filters out simply
won’t take with companies. Companies will always need a “home base” for
their content. The change will be in the media through which healthy
content filters out (such as Facebook, Twitter and RSS).
Scrivs makes this point in his Drawar article:
“In essence, what is happening is that sites have to realize that their
content is going to be accessed a number of different ways, and if they
don’t start to take control of the experience then someone else will. RSS
didn’t kill website traffic or revenues because there are some things you
simply can’t experience through an RSS feed Just because how we
consume content is starting to change doesn’t mean that design itself is
being marginalized.”Content isn’t just about press releases and text either. Ford would never
give up ford.com for content in a variety of feeds and aggregators.
Ford.com lets you build a car: where’s the feed or application for that?
Ford’s entire business depends on the functionality of its website. Its Web
team has worked hard to create an inviting user experience, unique to the
brand’s goals and issues. No company wanting to preserve its brand or
corporate identity would give up its main channel of communication and
branding for random feeds sprinkled across the Web.
In the same vein, no company would suddenly give up its carefully crafted
creative and regress to a template. Templates have been around for years,