Follow = RSS + Humanity
I would have sworn I’ve already written about this, so if you’ve read it I apologize.
A few months ago my friend Scott posted this: “Follow = RSS + Humanity, so the commercial opportunity is far richer.” (Just to give some context to Scott and his RSS creds, we met when I interviewed him for an article on RSS in 2004.)
Anyway, was thinking about this a little more recently, especially as I’ve gotten more into Tumblr and I think it’s super insightful plus a signal of a larger trend that’s going on. RSS was never destined for mainstream in it’s current form because it just takes too much work. Lots of browsers have tried to make it a little easier with live bookmarks and what not, but ultimately it requires new mechanisms to really reach the masses. In the end I wonder if the biggest takeaway from Twitter/Tumblr will end up be this humanizing of the technology.
Hi, I'm 
“I wonder if the biggest takeaway from Twitter/Tumblr will end up be this humanizing of the technology.”
Absolutely. And really, you’re just talking part of a larger trend, which is “responsible” internet usage, i.e. taking responsibility for your words and actions, rather than letting things be the bastion of trollism and anonymous hateblogging. There’s a lot more “policing” (for lack of a better term) going on sites like Tumblr (and Vimeo, especially), where it’s a sort of “play nice or get the hell out” attitude. Which is good! I mean, I hate trolls as much as the next guy. But, just saying, it also quickly and easily starts butting up against some really tetchy issues like censorship, privacy & etc.– and many sites, Facebook, Tumblr, and others, have already had some ugly/ungraceful interactions w/r/t that.
But yes, I think absolutely, unquestionably, the “humanization” of this web stuff has become solidified some time ago. Chances are, for a long time now, people have been “following” (ie reading) sites and not thinking “I am checking DaringFireball.Com,” but rather, “I am checking out what JOHN GRUBER has to say today.”
Does it come down to trust? There’s so much bullshit out there on the web now– search results referring us to sketchy scam/spam/marketing/bs content … I think we’re all just looking for sources we know we can TRUST now.