Microsoft: RSS Will Be Big in Longhorn
Posted by Harry McCracken | Friday, June 24, 2005 10:40 AM PT
This morning at the
Gnomedex conference in Seattle, Microsoft is announcing that Longhorn, next year's big Windows upgrade, will
incorporate RSS (Really Simple Syndication) as a core technology. RSS capability will be built into the OS, so that (for instance) you can have one set of newsfeed subscriptions show up in any Longhorn-aware newsreader or other application. Microsoft also says that Longhorn's RSS will make it easier for software developers to incorporate RSS-powered features into their programs without having to build the functionality from scratch.
The behemoth of Redmond is also saying it's working on something called Simple List Extensions, an RSS enhancement which will let RSS wrangle ordered lists of content, such as playlists and photo albums. Microsoft will make these extensions available through a
Creative Commons license, which means that other developers can incorporate them into their services and software products.
What does an RSS-ready Windows mean for existing applications? Its a safe bet that developers of existing RSS tools such as
Newsgator and
Pluck will need to release updates if they want to take advantage of Longhorn's RSS capabilities. Longhorn's built-in RSS will presumably power new functionality in that OS's version of Internet Explorer--right now, IE doesn't talk RSS at all--but Microsoft says that people who run future versions of IE under Windows XP will also get at least some RSS functionality.
Microsoft isn't talking about what it might do with RSS in other applications, but you can certainly imagine all kinds of uses for RSS feeds, ranging from calendar synching in Outlook, to image libraries in Word or PowerPoint, to help systems that auto-update themselves.
Microsoft being Microsoft, I suspect some folks will interpret its enthusiasm for RSS as an attempt to seize control of the standard or stifle competition or otherwise engage in nefarious activities. I don't know about that--it makes sense for plumbing like RSS to live in the OS, so that users and developers can just assume it's
there, and that it works in a consistent fashion in applications of all sorts. (I remember back in the days of Windows 3.1, when the OS didn't have any built-in ability to establish an Internet connection; you had to acquire and install a TCP/IP stack yourself. That was downright ugly, and if it had continued, Net access might have remained of interest mainly to geeks.)
For what it's worth, RSS inventor Dave Winer
is enthusiastic about Microsoft's plans.
Today, RSS is still mostly an extremely handy way to get blogs, news items,
Podcasts, and other chunks of information delivered to you. But the technology has the potential to be a powerful, universal means of automated communication between applications (both Web- and desktop-based) of all sorts. This news from Microsoft could help make that happen. And it'll be interesting to see if the company's use of Creative Commons licensing spurs other developers to adopt Simple List Extensions.
This just in...
Microsoft to include more preinstalled fonts in next version of Windows...
nice.....
This is the only way I have found to contact you, I would like to know if you sent me a survay to fill out, I have to go to another site to download and I don't know if it is safe to do it.
for what????
Microsoft does it again. RSS, they're behind the game. Give me something I really can use. Macs sure look attractive at this point. There is nothing to get excited about in Longhorn. I'll upgrade to Longhorn when there is something I can actually use. I think the majority of people feel the same way.
tHE ONLY THING I THEINK MICROSOFT SHOULD BE WORKING ON IS, PROTECTING US FROM THIS SPYWARE, AND TROJEN HORSES, iT IS A LOSING BATTLE, i AM AFRAID TO BUY ANYTHING NOW ONLINE.
i THINK THE ONLY THING MICROSOFT SHOULD BE DOING IS TRYING TO PROTECT US FROM ALLTHIS SPYWARE, AND VIRUSES,, ITS OVERWHELMING,, FIREWALLS, SPYWARE SOFTWARE,, AND STILL THERE IN MY pc.. i WONT EVER BUY ANYTHING AGAIN ONLINE,, TOO UNSAFE
Just listened to the Microsoft RSS podcast from Gnomedex and Adam Curry closing speech both of which I'd highly recommend.
Here's a direct quote from Brad Chase, once of Microsoft at the launch of IE4 back in the day (at Gnomedex they were previewing IE 7)
Active Desktop was a pre-cursor to RSS - or a previous attempt at 'push' media : The difference today is the focus on consumers being able to 'subscribe' to their favourite sites, who themselves will ensure their site is formatted in the right RSS (or Microsoft ?) format to ensure subscription can occur seamlessly. Active Channels had a handful of 'professional' content sites (to quote Steve Jobs on 'professional' podcasters)
Curry made an impassioned plea to let consumers 'get their media back' and also pushed that all industry players should be pushing for one click subscription. I'd recommend his talk over Steve Jobs 'Stay Foolish Stay Hungry' any day - His 'every user is a developer, and every developer is a user' is on the money at this juncture of RSS.
From Brad Chase @ IE4 launch many years ago : Microsoft is focused on "a newer way of getting information, some people call it push, we call it sometimes Webcasting. It's the ability to have Web sites delivered to you. So not only do we think primarily people want to browse, but we also believe there's a set of people that want content to come to them. I know that I travel a lot, for example. And so it's really convenient for me to be able to take a set of sites, download them onto my notebook and browse them right on the plane, even though I'm not connected."
Bill Gates said at the same launch "Certainly, we believe we've made a lot of progress in the browser space. One thing we feel is that with this product, Internet Explorer 4.0, during its lifetime, we will go to over 50 percent market share of browser users. So IE 4 is a major event. Dynamic HTML, active channels, the mail client we've got here, the advances in Net Meeting, all of those are based on the feedback from the people who are out there using the Web in very interesting ways."
It's almost Ten Years on ! Who will have the last laugh ? and where is Rupert ?
http://benbarren.blogspot.com
Speaking from the Open Soure side of things, it was extremely interesting to see that MS was going to be releasing the extensions under a Creative Commons license. The catch: Creative Commons, but incompatible with Linux and Mac.
"I suspect some folks will interpret its enthusiasm for RSS as an attempt to seize control of the standard or stifle competition or otherwise engage in nefarious activities. I don't know about that"
Of course not, its not like it ever happened before!
And the term embrace and extend are actually some CPR terminology.
Congratulations on a great web site. I am a new computer user and finding you was like coming home. Continued success.