Leading financial analysts’ report on blogs and RSS a must read

A recent report from Morgan Stanley’s analysts Mary Meeker, Brian Pitz and Brian Fitzgerald is a must read for law firms who want to understand where the online publishing world is headed.

Law firms are not seeking to generate revenue from publishing content per se. But understanding how to distribute information online and how your target audience is receiving such content is critical in keeping up with innovative law firm marketing professionals. Large law firm clients are reading this report, you ought to as well.

Report highlights

• Getting news / information when you want it is getting easier and easier

  Three factors are combining to drive online momentum: 1) rising usage of RSS (Really Simple Syndication) by content providers as a standard distribution platform for online content; 2) ramp in creation of blogs and other user-generated content and 3) Yahoo!’s easy-to-use integration of RSS feeds with My Yahoo!.

• Google may have set the pace for searching information, but Yahoo! may besetting the pace for new ways of serving information

  With Yahoo!s recently redesigned My Yahoo! personal page, it’s very easy for users to enhance programming and customization of personalized Web pages with the integration of syndicated information feeds from tens of thousands of sources. The end result for Yahoo! should be increases in user engagement and monetizable advertising inventory.

• Next generation content should gain usage / revenue traction in 2005

  We see the potential for next-generation content to positively impact Internet leaders including Yahoo!, Google and eBay as they leverage their distribution channels and/or content and services.

• Internet & PC Applications Software Industry view is Attractive

  We continue to believe that online is gaining share from offline, at the margin. In our view, this share shift is in its early stages, and Internet leaders could stand to benefit from this transition. We maintain that the depth and breadth of this transition is still underappreciated by investors.

More on this report once I have time to read it in full but for now understand the financial community sees the power of blogs and RSS. You ought to as well.

Download the full PDF report (21 pages) here.