My first step into the world of RSS came when it occurred to me to that an RSS feed could keep one of my websites fresh without me having to generate new content. The challenge was to find an appropriate newsfeed. Had my site been tech-oriented, that would have been easy. But the site I needed a feed for was a Christian singles site (LDS Singles Network). A lot of searching turned up nothing. Nada. Not a single appropriate feed. Well, there was one, but it loaded so slowly and inconsistently that it wasn't worth the trouble. In the end, I found a world news feed and used that.

I can't help but think that a wider variety of medium to high quality feeds might go a long way toward expanding the use of the technology. A quick look at Syndic8 indicates that feed topics are focused on just a few areas: technology, sports and regional feeds top the list of those using Syndic8 categories. Using DMOZ categories, arts, business and world also make respectable showings.

So where do I think we need more feeds? Here are a few thoughts:

* The majority of the arts feeds appear to be for particular bands and celebrities. More feeds dedicated to particular forms and genres would be good.

* Philosophy: I suppose a lot of blog feeds could be considered unfocused, amateur philosophy feeds. Quality feeds full of serious though-inspiring philosophy would be better.

* Politics: Once again, there are probably a million blogs spouting highly charged political nonsense. What we need are some News Hour With Jim Lehrer quality political blogs to help people get an accurate picture of the issues and people's positions.

* Religion: Feeds for specific religious denominations.

* Sports and Hobbies: We probably don't need any more generic sports feeds, but more feeds focusing on specific recreational interests would be good. A feed about rock climbing and mountaineering would be perfect for one of my brother's sites. I've looked for one from time to time and never found a single one.

When we have high- (or at least medium-) quality feeds for every interest, everyone will be a potential feed user. Until then, a lot of people won't have any use for the technology.