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RSS Usage Survey Results


This is a permanent mirror of the results available at research.microsoft.com.

Raw Results

Those interested in the full, unprocessed results from the survey can download any of the following tab-delimited text files:

Note: These results do not protect against duplicates in web submissions. Survey data taken from 2006-09-20 08:34:06 PST to 2006-10-12 10:54:27 PST. OPML files are not available for download to guard against potential privacy issues.

Basic Survey Results

Total responses: 1354

  1. Which RSS reader do you use primarily?

    Response # %
    Bloglines 242 17.9%
    Zhuaxia 187 13.8%
    Google Reader 148 10.9%
    GreatNews 72 5.3%
    FeedDemon 70 5.2%
    NetNewsWire 63 4.7%
    IE7 59 4.4%
    Sage 43 3.2%
    SharpReader 30 2.2%
    Firefox Live Bookmarks 28 2.1%
    RSS Bandit 27 2.0%
    Newsgator Online 21 1.6%
    Opera RSS Reader 20 1.5%
    Outlook 12 19 1.4%
    Potu 18 1.3%
    Thunderbird 18 1.3%
    Gougou 13 1.0%
    Live.com 13 1.0%
    Sina 13 1.0%
    NewsFire 11 0.8%
    RSSReader 9 0.7%
    FoxMail 8 0.6%
    OnFolio 7 0.5%
    My Yahoo! 5 0.4%
    Newsgator Desktop 4 0.3%
    Pluck 4 0.3%
    Livejournal 1 0.1%
    Other desktop software 102 7.5%
    Other web-based reader 78 5.8%

  2. How many feeds are you subscribed to in your primary RSS reader?

    Response # %
    Under 10 95 7.0%
    10-25 236 17.4%
    26-50 285 21.0%
    51-100 314 23.2%
    101+ 424 31.3%

  3. On average, how frequently do you open your RSS reader (e.g. to read unread articles, to find an old article)?

    Response # %
    Once a week (or less) 42 3.1%
    2-6 times per week 107 7.9%
    Once per day 210 15.5%
    Twice per day 236 17.4%
    3 times per day 202 14.9%
    4 times per day 66 4.9%
    5 or more times per day 491 36.3%

  4. On average, how long do you spend in your RSS reader (per session)?

    Response # %
    1-5 minutes 81 6.0%
    5-10 minutes 160 11.8%
    10-15 minutes 236 17.4%
    15-30 minutes 329 24.3%
    30-60 minutes 276 20.4%
    Over an hour 272 20.1%

  5. What time of day do you usually use your RSS reader (check all that apply)?

    Response # %
    Early morning 638 47.1%
    Morning to noon 484 35.7%
    Lunch hour / mid-day 550 40.6%
    Early afternoon 476 35.2%
    Late afternoon 488 36.0%
    Evening 818 60.4%
    Late night 457 33.8%

  6. Do you set your reader to notify you when a new article is downloaded (via an alert) or when unread articles exist (via an indicator)?

    Response # %
    Yes, new article (alert) & unread (indicator) 266 19.6%
    Yes, new article (alert) only 112 8.3%
    Yes, unread (indicator) only 496 36.6%
    No, neither 480 35.5%

  7. Do you share or save articles (or links to articles) that you found via your RSS reader? If so, how?

    Response # %
    Browser bookmarks / favorites 373 27.5%
    Online service (del.icio.us, digg, etc.) 658 48.6%
    Email to friends or self 311 23.0%
    Print article 55 4.1%
    Save article to file 206 15.2%
    Post to your blog 321 23.7%
    I don't share or save articles from my reader 248 18.3%

  8. Do you have a blog?

    Response # %
    Yes, regularly updated 602 44.5%
    Yes, rarely updated 494 36.5%
    No 258 19.1%

OPML file analysis (high-level)

  • Total received: 320
  • Total number of unique feeds: 40,616

  1. Number of feeds subscribed

    • Mean: 126.925
    • Maximum: 1823
    • Minimum: 3
    • Median: 86
    • Std-dev: 172.7276

  2. Subscribers per feed

    • Average: 1.6362
    • Maximum: 104
    • Minimum: 1
    • Median: 1
    • Std-dev: 2.7232

  3. Most subscribed feeds (top 18)

    BlogSubscribers
    Playin with IT http://feeds.feedburner.com/PlayinWithIt106
    Official Google Blog http://googleblog.blogspot.com/atom.xml103
    TechCrunch http://feeds.feedburner.com/Techcrunch99
    Joel on Software http://www.joelonsoftware.com/rss.xml83
    Scobleizer - Tech Geek Blogger http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/feed/82
    Google China Blog http://googlechinablog.com/atom.xml75
    Engadget http://www.engadget.com/rss.xml73
    Chinese Blogbeta http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogbeta/chn65
    A List Apart http://www.alistapart.com/rss.xml57
    Engadget China http://cn.engadget.com/rss.xml56
    Slashdot http://rss.slashdot.org/Slashdot/slashdot55
    Incomplete http://feeds.feedburner.com/Incomplete53
    Particle Tree http://particletree.com/rss/52
    LaoBai's Blog http://feeds.feedburner.com/laobaisBlog51
    Solidot http://feeds.feedburner.com/solidot51
    Wang Xiao Feng's blog http://feeds.feedburner.com/wangxiaofeng50
    Mezzoblue http://www.mezzoblue.com/rss/index.xml49
    Jeffrey Zeldman Presents http://www.zeldman.com/feed/zeldman.xml49
    Bloglines News http://www.bloglines.com/rss/about/news47
    Mini-Microsoft http://minimsft.blogspot.com/atom.xml46
    GSeeker http://www.gseeker.com/index.rss) 46

About the project

Project Participants, Microsoft Research Asia

Document History

Last updated: Dec 4, 2006.