Microsoft Heart RSS in Longhorn :) What does it mean?

Michael Gartenberg | June 24, 2005, 01:29 PM

So now the full story is told and this is pretty big news. Microsoft is adding RSS support to Longhorn in a big way both in terms of making it more accessible to end users and providing developers new extensions to RSS. This is important for a number of reasons. First, for anyone still in doubt, RSS is hitting critical mass and the big players are getting involved. If you're not looking at using RSS, you're missing out on some really huge opportunities.

Second, as I suggested might happen, Microsoft is extending RSS but fortunately, they're doing this in a way that is very different from the way they might have done this in the past. The company really seems to be be trying to do this in the right way to benefit developers, the RSS community and end users. In the past when Microsoft used the term "embrace and extend" I would translate that to "engulf and devour". By releasing their extensions to RSS under a creative commons license (the same way RSS itself is licensed) Microsoft is doing the right thing for the community and customers and showing that they can extend a technology without co-opting it.

The third, is that while basic RSS support will be a commodity, there's potential here for developers to do some cool stuff. Really cool stuff that goes way beyond using RSS as a medium for sending news down to an aggregator. That's good for Microsoft, Longhorn, developers and customers. While others I'm sure will find fault, this is big news and I'm really looking to see how this implementation plays out.