Everything about RSS

Blogging has become a way of life for the true citizens of the net. A way of expression for some, propagating information for others, blogs have truly come a long way. However most bloggers, even many religious ones, don’t seem to or rather have not been curious enough, to find about the three innocuous letters on the sides of their blogs. I am talking about RSS. For months I just glanced at it, curiosity did arise, but I left it at that. When I did find out about RSS, I realised how important it was for any blogger to know about it. Sharing some information about RSS with you.

What is RSS?
RSS is a Web content syndication format. Its name is an acronym for Really Simple Syndication. RSS is a lightweight XML format designed for sharing headlines and other Web content. RSS allows peoples’ computers to fetch and understand the information, so that all of the lists they’re interested in can be tracked and personalised for them. It is a format that’s intended for use by computers on behalf of people, rather than being directly presented to them (like HTML).

According to webreference -
Think of it as a distributable “What’s New” for your site. Originated by UserLand in 1997 and subsequently used by Netscape to fill channels for Netcenter, RSS has evolved into a popular means of sharing content between sites (including the BBC, CNET, CNN, Disney, Forbes, Motley Fool, Wired, Red Herring, Salon, Slashdot, ZDNet, and more). RSS solves myriad problems webmasters commonly face, such as increasing traffic, and gathering and distributing news. RSS can also be the basis for additional content distribution services.

Brief History
According to xml.com – The name “RSS” is an umbrella term for a format that spans several different versions of at least two different (but parallel) formats. The original RSS, version 0.90, was designed by Netscape as a format for building portals of headlines to mainstream news sites. It was deemed overly complex for its goals; a simpler version, 0.91, was proposed and subsequently dropped when Netscape lost interest in the portal-making business. But 0.91 was picked up by another vendor, UserLand Software, which intended to use it as the basis of its weblogging products and other web-based writing software.

In the meantime, a third, non-commercial group split off and designed a new format based on what they perceived as the original guiding principles of RSS 0.90 (before it got simplified into 0.91). This format, which is based on RDF, is called RSS 1.0. But UserLand was not involved in designing this new format, and, as an advocate of simplifying 0.90, it was not happy when RSS 1.0 was announced. Instead of accepting RSS 1.0, UserLand continued to evolve the 0.9x branch, through versions 0.92, 0.93, 0.94, and finally 2.0.

So which one do I use?
That’s 7 – count ‘em, 7! – different formats, all called “RSS”. As a coder of RSS-aware programs, you’ll need to be liberal enough to handle all the variations. But as a content producer who wants to make your content available via syndication, which format should you choose?
RSS versions and recommendations check www.xml.com

RSS-DEV Working Group
RDF-based, extensibility via modules, not controlled by a single vendor Stable core, active module development Used for RDF- based applications or if you use advanced RDF- specific modules
2.0 UserLand Extensibility via modules, easy migration path from 0.9x branch Stable core, active module development Used for general-purpose, metdata-rich syndication

ATOM – the arch rival
Atom is an XML-based file format intended to allow lists of information, known as “feeds”, to be synchronised between publishers and consumers. Feeds are composed of a number of items, known as “entries”, each with an extensible set of attached metadata. For example, each entry has a title. The primary use case that Atom addresses is for syndicating Web content such as Weblogs and news headlines to other Web sites and directly to consumers. However, nothing precludes it from being used for other purposes and types of content.

The Commercial Angel
As commercial interests have increasingly dominated the Internet, Web logs have come to represent a bastion of individual expression and pure democracy for millions of bloggers. So it should come as little surprise that a technology behind blogs–online chronicles of personal, creative and organizational life–has manifested the kind of bitter fight for control that is inevitable in any truly democratic institution.

The conflict centers Harvard Law School fellow Dave Winer, the blogging pioneer who is the key gatekeeper of RSS, against advocates of a different format. The most notable of these advocates are Blogger owner Google supporting Atom.

Yahoo supports RSS – According to Yahoo.com “Yahoo! believes RSS has tremendous potential to make it easier for people find, share, and subscribe to news and information on the Internet. We created excitement in the RSS community when Yahoo! News started syndication in August 2003. Anyone who agrees to our Terms of Service can now distribute Yahoo! News headlines or read them in an RSS news reader. Yahoo! also uses RSS to syndicate Ask Yahoo!, a daily question and answer column, and the Yahoo! Buzz Index, which highlights top searches and movers in a variety of categories. Stay tuned for more original Yahoo! content via RSS.”

Google supports Atom – Google’s Blogger service is bypassing Really Simple Syndication in favor of an alternative technology, a move that has sparked more discord in a bitter dispute over Web log syndication formats. Instead of the RSS feed capability previously offered in Blogger Pro, Blogger is now exclusively supporting Atom for blog content syndication

Why should you syndicate your content?
Atom and RSS battle aside, the question now is of syndicating your content, why wouldn’t you? Headline syndication is a great way to build awareness of your content and your brand, drive traffic to your site, and serve your existing readership – with relative ease and without expense. Invest a small amount of time to create your RSS file and you can essentially distribute headlines to many sources with very minimal ongoing work and virtually no overhead. Not only can syndication help build stronger relationships with existing readers who want to know as soon as new content gets posted, it will also help attract new readers.