Emerging technologies are, by their nature, difficult to identify until they have become somewhat adopted by the marketplace. Emerging technologies are those technologies which have only recently been introduced to the market, and which may or may not succeed long-term. These technologies are considered "emerging" until the market fully exploits their potential ("Emerging," 2006). Emerging technologies of the past have included 8-track tape decks and mobile phones. Both achieved short-term success, but only mobile phones remained strong in the market. Even mobile phones have continued to evolve and mature, however, so that the "bag phones" of the initial days have been replaced by handheld devices and Bluetooth technology that fit in one's pocket.
Technology canùand doesùemerge in most fields, but much of the media attention is focused on consumer electronics. Within this field, attention tends to be focused on the Internet and related technologies as individuals seek ways to improve their productivity and their ability to connect with the world.
A technology which has recently been introduced and is beginning to achieve some market penetration on the Internet is Really Simple Syndication (RSS). When individuals first started using the Internet on a regular basis, newsgroupsùor Usenetùwas one of the ways in which they would keep in contact with one another. Individuals would subscribe to these newsgroups and receive information from others with similar interests. As businesses became more adept at using the Internet, users could initiate e-mail alerts so that news items or other information with specific keywords would automatically be forwarded to the user's e-mail account. However, such alerts were dependent on a central portal, such as Yahoo! or AOL ("RSS," 2006).
RSS feeds are set up directly with the entity or agency that provides the information. Users subscribe to the RSS feed and
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