Microsoft debuts RSS in IE7 Beta 1
Jane Kim, program manager for RSS in Internet Explorer, has written a useful post detailing the new RSS features in IE7. A few comments from me...
1) Microsoft has decided to call RSS "web feeds", at least for now. Jane says they're "still actively exploring what is the right name to use for RSS feeds". Although I agree that end users need not be concerned with knowing what RSS is - they just need to see the benefits of syndication and subscribing to information - I don't think 'web feeds' is any clearer than 'RSS'. Personally I think RSS and its orange branding has gotten too much traction on the Web already and it's too late to change it now.
Don't mess with the brand Microsoft - it's bigger than you. Even the Atom proponents admit that RSS is the brand name.
2) Discovery: "If a web feed is found, the web feed button on the toolbar lights up." Additionally it can play a sound. Bing! This is good stuff - it will help promote RSS feeds to normal Web users if it is highlighted in this manner. Apparently publishers will be able to control this setting. Naturally the user also can tweak their browser settings.
3) That format thing: "Beta 1 of Windows Vista and IE 7 for XP currently supports the web feed formats RSS .9x, RSS 1.0, and RSS 2.0. As Sean mentioned, Atom 0.3 and Atom 1.0 support will come in a later release."
I suppose the Atom folks will be slightly miffed. But how many feed-enabled blogs and websites don't have at least one varient of RSS .9x-2? (I actually don't know the answer to that, so someone feel free to enlighten me).
4) IE7 will display a browser-friendly version of the RSS feed - much like Feedburner does with my RSS feed. Again, this is a good way to make sure RSS gets adopted by the mainstream.
Summary
Not a bad start by Microsoft. It doesn't appear they have all the functionality they promised at Gnomedex ready to roll out yet - e.g. there was no mention of support for Simple List Extensions. This Beta 1 seems to be aimed at users, rather than developers. Having said that, there was also little mention of the RSS Reader functionality that IE7 will have. I expect we'll hear more soon.
Comments
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I think Blogger defaults to Atom rather than RSS, so most (all?) blogspot.com accounts will only have an Atom feed available. So these days, I think a reader would have to support all of them.
I have to disagree on the webfeed vs. RSS issue. Because RSS can stand for at least three different things and because it also means the format (as opposed to Atom, say -- so it's a general category of thing as well as a particular flavor), I think it's a really confusing term to use. In speaking with some of my clients, I've done a lot better talking webfeeds.
(also for what Adrian says: I believe Blogger *only* does Atom, you have to run the atom through feedburner, etc., to get RSS)
I'd forgotten about Blogger only doing Atom feeds, so yes very interesting point! Of course MS's lack of Atom support has absolutely nothing to do with Blogger being owned by Google.... (!!)
Thanks for the feedback re the RSS vs webfeeds issue Christina. Personally I think the term 'RSS' has transcended the politics and format wars. End users certainly no not need to know what *format* of RSS they're using, so there's no real need to let them know that RSS may mean RSS 1.0 or RSS 2.0 etc. And the Atom people pretty much accept that RSS is the brandname for syndication feeds.
Plus I really think the orange color branding of RSS is too effective to try and re-brand it now. e.g. Yahoo, NY Times, BBC and a lot of other big companies use that RSS branding now.