What is it?
RSS is a lightweight XML format, used to standardise news and
other material so that updates on website content can be sent to
end-users who have requested them. RSS also enables content to be
syndicated to other websites.
From the user’s point of view, RSS has been described as a
“content personalisation tool”. Readers and aggregators in client
software such as browsers check the “feeds” from the originating
websites and display anything new.
Effectively a mini-database of headlines and other summaries of
new content, RSS is also being explored as a mechanism for content
distribution services, which Microsoft’s Simple List Extensions
will support. Money is being invested in medical and financial
applications.
RSS has had two tipping points in its history. The first was
when the New York Times adopted it to provide news feeds, rapidly
followed by other media organisations, including CNN and the BBC.
The second was Microsoft’s decision to include it in Internet
Explorer 7.
A 2005 survey by Nielsen/Netratings found that even among
tech-savvy blog users, about 66% had never heard of RSS. To date,
only about 5% of people use RSS to get news and information
delivered to them. With Internet Explorer 7, RSS will hit the
mainstream.
This carries the usual downsides: the Microsoft implementation
is good enough, rather than good, and Microsoft has created its own
extensions which, though covered by Creative Commons licensing, are
likely to skew future development in a Windows-centric
direction.
Where is it used?
By newspapers, broadcasters and other media companies, Google
and Yahoo, also bloggers.
Where did it originate?
RSS had proprietary forebears, such as Apple’s Meta Content
Framework and Microsoft’s Channel Definition Format, but the true
line grew out of a project abandoned by Netscape. Rich Site Summary
was cast adrift at version 0.91, just as the internet’s early
adopters had started to take an interest. It was picked up by
UserLand, a supplier of web authoring products.
However, a breakaway faction had already created RSS 1.0
(standing for RDF Site Summary), so when UserLand had a product to
release, this had to be called RSS 2.0 – which sounds like a
successor to RSS 1.0, but isn’t; in this case it stands for Really
Simple Syndication. Since 2003, the RSS 2.0 specification has been
owned by the Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and
Society.
What makes it special?
RSS provides a way of promoting websites without costly
advertising and can be used to set up ad-hoc content sharing
partnerships.
How difficult is it to master?
RSS is straightforward for those with a basic grasp of XML
and/or HTML/XHTML. Most tutorials involve just a few hours’
work.
What systems does it run on?
Internet Explorer 7, Apple’s Safari, Mozilla’s Firefox and the
Opera browser can all handle web feeds. IBM has included RSS
capability in the latest releases of Lotus Notes and Domino. Being
“lightweight”, RSS is ideal for portable devices such as PDAs and
mobile phones.
What is coming up?
Microsoft is building RSS technologies into Longhorn, its
next-generation server operating system.
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