RSS feeds, those digital pipelines into reams of content, were traditionally an ad-less domain where web surfers could user “readers” to access news stories and the like in a standardized format and without many ads.
Yahoo has ended that.
The web services provider has allowed ads into its RSS feeds, and banks are leading the charge. Here’s how a Citibusiness RSS ad looks like:
A last bastion void of advertising has fallen. On some level, I’m surprised that banks are first-movers in RSS advertising, considering that there is the remote potential that some RSS might react negatively to the advertising invasion. Could it be — gasp! — banks are ahead of the curve on this? (I won’t answer that one.)