Microsoft RSS

Michael Gartenberg | December 04, 2003, 07:38 AM

There's an interesting discussion on Robert Scoble's weblog about RSS vs. Atom. Scoble asks as part of the discussion, "Hey, since we're gonna have to do two formats, why shouldn't Microsoft invent a third? Very interesting. I don't think Robert is making a formal announcement here but RSS is just the type of standard that fits neatly in with Microsoft's "embrace and extend" philosophy. I am sure there are folks in Redmond watching this very carefully. The fact is that RSS is a totally substitutable technology and I disagree with the notion that there will be two or three specs competing. If Google decides to break away from RSS, that will have a huge impact (but probably not enough to create a center of gravity large enough to kill RSS). If that's the circumstance, I believe Microsoft will get into the game and come up with a Microsoft variant of RSS, think MS-RSS as the basis for syndication. Backwards compatible (to a degree) but supporting new features that will work with... Longhorn? The fact that Microsoft currently supports RSS 2.0 doesn't mean all that much in the future. This is learning time for Microsoft and if the RSS fragments further, watch them step into the game. Bottom line, users don't care about RSS, ATOM or any other technology. Users care about the value of syndicated content (especially aggregated into something like Outlook...)  The head of Black and Decker once said, customers don't buy our products because they need want one inch drills, they buy our products because they need on inch holes.