I don't care about rebates myself because I usually hold for minutes to hours. It's difficult to locate information leakage so I don't avoid any particular venue. Maybe some of the HFT people here can comment as they are much better informed.
maker taker fees get more important as you get closer to institutional HFT... if you're holding positions for sub-second to a few seconds, then those fees are your bread and butter; if you are a retail investor holding positions for months, they're just a rather small fee on top of a much larger stack of fees that you're already paying.
Thanks, eusdaiki! Yep, but it seems that retail investors' orders are handled in bundles by institutions. Then they effectively becomes HFT to the exchanges (unless the retail investor specifies a target venue), right?
But on the retail level you're paying way more than the $0.20 on 100 shares that you get from rebates... The rebate may help a bit with the cost, but it's not going to put you on the green in that league.