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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?"

16 of 212 comments (clear)

  1. You'd think... by Short+Circuit · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...it'd become an RFC at some point.

    --
    tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
    1. 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)
    2. 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.
  2. 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.

    1. Re:FYI (because I didn't know this) by HappyDrgn · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It is often useful for sites which would like to carry news but the primary objective of the site is not news. RSS is a standard way to receive the news from multiple sources and parse it using a standard class or function. An example would be an ISP members section. You could provide news stories or even securityfocus.com announcements updated automatically without any additional labor. This is a benefit to both parties in that it adds value to your site while at the same time drives traffic to the news supplier (hopefully for them increasing ad revenue).

    2. Re:FYI (because I didn't know this) by dindi · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Out of sync ? LATE ?

      People! Your aggregator might be out of sync, not the website RSS feed.
      If you update the sources every 5 minutes it is still better than reloading the whole site every 5 minutes (and some sites have update time policies eg every 10 mins)
      The feed most likely comes from the same db and as so it is not outdated.

      Useful ? well if you use a PDA over a GPRS link, it is really cool to have just headlines that consume a few bytes, instead of loading 20 websites with all the ads and gfx (could be megabytes)

      I think it is a cool thing, and even if you do not have a decent aggregator you can sed and grep and awk it to assemble a desired format ...

      just my 1cent opinion :)

  3. 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.

  4. Atom? by Tragek · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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?

    1. Re:Atom? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      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?

      If we didn't keep reinventing the wheel then society would be plagued with unemployed wheel inventors with nothing to keep them busy. It would be a nightmare.

    2. 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. Are you insane?!? by burgburgburg · · Score: 5, Funny
    Will RSS and Atom finally converge?

    If they do, then the [trekmode]Universe will come to an end![/trekmode]

    Oh, wait, that's matter and antimatter. Never mind. False alarm. Boy, I'm embarrassed now.

  6. 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

  7. The weight of Google by Infonaut · · Score: 5, Insightful
    It will be interesting to see how this plays out, but it would be nice if the clout of the company that dominates search could be used to help a standard rather than hinder it.

    Microsoft, are you watching?

    --
    Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
  8. Dave Winer still controls RSS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    During the recent call for comments over changing the RSS 2.0 specification, Mark Pilgrim supplied a test case to show that it was a non-backwards-compatible change.

    While Dave Winer is supposed to not control the RSS specification, he managed to delete Mark Pilgrim's comments as he has control over the server the comment system runs on.

    Mark and Dave don't get on; that's no big secret. But Dave interfered with feedback because of his grudge against Mark. I don't think anybody should claim that RSS is not under Dave's control.

  9. This is rich... by stienman · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The "RSS 2.0 format is by far the most widely used format. There was a time when it looked like things would coalesce, but then things started to fragment, largely due to Google," Winer said. "RSS deserves Google's respect, and it's not getting it."

    Ah yes. Let's translate the first sentence, "RSS 2.0 format is by far the most widely used format. There was a time when it looked like things would go my way, but then people started to use a competing syndication system, largely due to Google"

    The line about RSS deserving respect from anyone much less Google just cracks me up. Regardless of which is "better," Google made a business decision to focus on one. RSS deserves nothing from Google or anyone else. It's a specification for crying out loud.

    Keeping this in mind, let's now translate the second sentence, "I deserve Google's respect, and I'm not getting it."

    That sounds about right. If you are so tied to your creation that you cannot seperate yourself from it then you need take a step back, take a deep breath, and avoid making decisions for your baby until it, and you, have matured.

    -Adam

  10. Re:No one controls RSS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Roger, here's what you have to do to convince people that RSS isn't controlled by Dave Winer:

    -- Document and disclose the process for choosing members of the advisory board. Who issues the invitations? Who decides who to invite to be a member? If a member quits, who decides who will fill the empty slot?

    -- Enlarge the board so that Dave has to convince more than one person in order to get his way.

    -- Get people on the board who are not perceived by the public, correctly or incorrectly, as being Dave's cronies. It would be especially useful to get someone with technical stature in the business who has not been involved in the controversy.

    -- Eventually, convince Dave to retire from the board. The "Charles Goldfarb" factor is real, and a lot of people will just not participate if it means interacting with Dave, however unfair or irrational that feeling may be.

    (Comments similar to this post have been deleted by Dave from his message board.)