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Google Finally Moves Toward RSS Standard

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the i-miss-ultramode dept.

declan writes "My News.com colleague Evan Hansen just got his hands on an internal email thread revealing that Google is planning to embrace RSS. Evan's co-authored News.com article quotes from the email (sent to Sergey Brin, Larry Page, and Eric Schmidt) confirming that Google is rethinking only supporting Atom. Slashdot covered Google's purchase of Pyra Labs and Blogger.com/Blogspot.com last year that made it a fan of the Atom standard. Does this news mean that RSS is now viewed as out of Dave Winer's control? Will RSS and Atom finally converge?"

6 of 212 comments (clear)

  1. FYI (because I didn't know this) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    RSS and Atom files provide news updates from a website in a simple form for your computer. You read these files in a program called an aggregator, which collects news from various websites and provides it to you in a simple form.

  2. and in other news.... by hta · · Score: 5, Informative

    the IETF just approved a new WG whose charter says:

    The working group will use experience gained with RSS (variably used as a name by itself and as an acronym for "RDF Site Summary", "Rich Site Summary", or "Really Simple Syndication") as the basis for a standards-track document specifying the model, syntax, and feed format.

    The name of the group is ATOMPUB, so you see where the rest of the experience being considered comes from.

  3. RSS & Atom by JaF893 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Hopefully google will adopt RSS rather than Atom. I don't know why but I've always preferred RSS. Incase you are thinking WTF here are some links courtesy of Wikipedia:
    RSS
    Atom Note: These pages are a bit thin on detail but contain some useful links if you want to find out more

  4. Re:Atom? by Dun+Malg · · Score: 5, Informative
    Why did atom even come into existance? Was not RSS already established, or is there some kind of deficiancy in RSS that i'm missing here?

    I think the deficiency with RSS was lack of a consistent implementation. There were too many minor variations within the assorted RSS instances to guarantee compatibility from one to another. Atom had the advantage of being self-consistency.

    --
    If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
  5. Re:You'd think... by ScumericanNazi · · Score: 5, Informative

    RFC stands for Request For Comment.

    An RFC does NOT have to be a standard, it does NOT have to be binding. It CAN be a memo about an idea that you want others to COMMENT on, it CAN be a proposal for which you are REQUESTING others people's COMMENTS.

    Hence, the statement "RFC is not appropriate" is incorrect.

    --
    Sig Heil: Scumerica - Land of the Free* (* 18+, valid papers, health insurance, some restrictions apply)
  6. Re:You'd think... by joeldg · · Score: 5, Informative

    umm..
    I was not going to respond to this.. but just in case someone else might happen to think you are correct for some strange reason.

    If you actually poke around in RFC's you might notice that languages generally don't have them (markup does, but XML which is what RDF/RSS/Atom is built on already has an RFC).
    Poke around http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/ and see, you are generally trying to have top-level projects for RFC's, not a subproject.

    RSS is a vocabulary built on XML and therefore would never warrant an RFC.

    --
    anime+manga together at last.. in real time.