WordPress Just Made Millions of Blogs Real-Time With RSSCloud
All blogs on the WordPress.com platform and any WordPress.org blogs that opt-in (using this plug-in) will now make instant updates available to any RSS readers subscribed to a new feature called RSSCloud. There is currently only one RSS aggregator that supports RSSCloud, Dave Winer's brand-new reader River2. That will probably change very soon. Update: Within hours another RSS reader called LazyFeed has announced that it will support RSSCloud as well.
RSSCloud is an element that's always been present in the RSS 2.0 spec but has drawn new attention with the rise of interest in the Real-Time Web. The element was just added to the WordPress code this afternoon. The implications of this big vote of support go beyond reading WordPress blogs; this is the kind of traction that new technologies can leverage to gain support in many different applications.
Supporting feed readers will now be able to request updates from WordPress blog feeds as soon as they become available, instead of polling a server periodically to check for updates. (Your blog posts typically get picked up by RSS aggregators 15 to 60 minutes after you posted them - this will change that.) The feature is already being rolled out, several WordPress users report seeing the cloud element in the source code of their RSS feeds. Update: Here's the official announcement from WordPress HQ.
Google Reader, the dominant RSS aggregator on the market, began a limited implementation of a related protocol called PubSubHubbub last month. Facebook-acquired FriendFeed worked with Google on that system.
Now RSSCloud has a posse. Half a million blogs are created each month on WordPress and if Google Reader keeps taking its sweet time checking those blogs for updates instead of turning on support for RSSCloud, it's going to look slow as molasses.
Real time updates could enable several things. Faster distribution of blog posts, more compelling conversations in real-time and a renewed timeliness for blogging vs. services like Twitter are all likely consequences. The list of possible technical developments on top of RSSCloud could be as open-ended as the developments enabled by the core of RSS.
RSS has made blogging viable by freeing readers of the requirement of visiting each site they are interested in. It has made podcasts subscribable. It has made wiki change notifications trackable outside the mess of the email inbox. It has made search a persistent action, instead of a one-off occasional delayed reaction. RSS is mixable, mashable, parsable, filterabile.
Now RSSCloud could add a real-time dimension to all of that. The paradigm just got a very big vote of support.
Facebook
Comments
Subscribe to comments for this post OR Subscribe to comments for all ReadWriteWeb posts
Take that , (fill in the blank) Long live RSS! Congrats to Dave & Matt.
How do I opt in for my Wordpress.org blog? And does this matter until Google Reader supports it?
I've been seeing comments like "RSS is dead" a lot lately. Maybe this will give it new life.
So this is similiar to pubsubhubbub, except its support by 1 feedreader... Curious how it runs on... Luckily there is a plugin for pubsubhubbub for wordpress, now i only need Google Reader to support it!
Francine, we've put a preliminary version of a WordPress.org plugin here.
Francine, not all of us use Google Reader, for one thing.
Many blogs route their feed through feedburner. So, if an update becomes available, who will serve the feed? blog or feedreader. If feedburner takes its own time to publish feeds, then 'real-time' makes no sense. isin't it?
Marshall this is such a good piece - love how you broke down the rhetoric so everything actually...makes sense. Congratulations to WP and Dave.
And anyone who says RSS is dead, needs to think twice. Tell me how to track all the API reliant mashup bits? You can't (yet) As of now, I'm team "RSSCloud" (maaan more marketing lingo to add to my e-ctionary.)
Marshall: here's one way I see that RSS Cloud could be used: http://scobleizer.com/2009/09/07/rssroberts-stuff-is-saved-will-it-do-the-same-for-cnns-twitter-account/ do you agree?
Fantastic. Dave ought to be commended for putting his nose to the grindstone on this one - in the face of all the critics. And to Matt...awesome!
Been waiting for something like this to hit... can't wait for self-hosted WP blogs to have a plugin...
in fact... *hack hack hack* writing one...
I installed the RSScloud plugin early last week. Will this cause a conflict with the new automatic implementation?
You don't have to check for emails; all email apps will check for new messages automatically. So I think a more apt comparison of the current rss to email is setting your email app to check for new messages every few minutes. Is that really such a hassle compared to having email pushed immediately? While I can see someone whose job relies on constant, immediate emails (though less jobs then people think), is waiting a few minutes for an rss feed really important to anyone? In the time it takes to read all the posts I get, I already have new ones. I don't even have the time to read all of the posts that I do get. What would getting those posts faster actually accomplish?
If everything is constantly real-time, then when is the time to absorb information, give it some thought, and respond? Are we getting to the point of too much information too fast? Are the only people involved in all these real-time conversations going to be those constantly getting short bits of information and giving quick responses before moving on to the next thing? Will this have a negative effect on thoughtful discourse in the future?
Just some thoughts.
I'm with Francine. I want to know how to opt in on my self-hosted Wordpress blog now?
There's a plug-in linked in first sentence of this post, Ron.
Robert, that does sound like one of many possible great uses for this technology. Thanks for thinking of it.
Has anyone actually verified that this solution is scalable to support anything close to real-time before investing in it?
D'oh! Maybe next time I should read all the comments before posting. Just noticed #5 by Matt.
So, can anyone please explain to us dumdummies who don't know all the internets what this exactly means on a practical level for those of us who have wordpress blogs? Especially for wordpress.org (own hosted) ones? What are we supposed to do to take full advantage of this?
Sorry for missing the original link, Marshall. I was expecting it to be baked into a full release of Wordpress, not just a plugin. My mistake.
This definitely puts the nail in the coffin of the "RSS is dead" contentious debate.
Now we can focus on innovations in-and-around RSS.
(In response to the Google Reader question, I think that Google will use their HubPubSubHubb in conjunction with Feedburner,- however I suspect they will need to be compatible with rssCloud) Translation for end-users: wait and see.
@William Hopefully - its a pointless debate - always was.
Posted by: Chris Saad
|
September 7, 2009 4:58 PM
pointless for those who don't care about realtime
Posted by: Steve Gillmor
|
September 7, 2009 4:59 PM
lol saying that to me is kinda silly too Steve :)
Posted by: Chris Saad
|
September 7, 2009 5:00 PM
Instead of debating, why not just let the API mashup devs do their thing and the rssCloud (RSSCloud?) devs do their thing. We (the social media megaphoners) need to just shut our speculating pieholes, wait, and anticipate being blown away (or not). Turning non issues into issues is SO Web 1.0. #justsayin #rsscloud #api
Posted by: Mona Nomura
|
September 7, 2009 5:03 PM
it's not a non-issue, and these technologoies were invented to give people a voice
Posted by: Steve Gillmor
|
September 7, 2009 5:06 PM
Mona, you're so wise! :-)
Posted by: Dave Winer
|
September 7, 2009 5:17 PM
The fact that we are all here in FF (SUP) vs. discussing via instantized blog/comment volley/query rebuttal is telling. This notion of approaching more realtime options is how blogs might get back to being useful for certain groups of folks. Maybe?
Posted by: Jay Cuthrell
|
September 7, 2009 5:17 PM
Real-time is a very important feature Jay - super important. So are a number of other key features of the social web and a number of new emerging features of the next web.
Posted by: Chris Saad
|
September 7, 2009 5:18 PM
(didn't mean to inject or hijack anything there btw... this is all good stuff)
Posted by: Jay Cuthrell
|
September 7, 2009 5:20 PM
Thanks, Dave. Congrats on the big news, btw!
Posted by: Mona Nomura
|
September 7, 2009 5:20 PM
To add - if "real time discussions" are pertinent to your forward thinking, innovations, and products: You're Doing it Wrong. Form opinions, then discuss. If you're wrong, apologize, learn, and move on. #CriticalThinking101
Posted by: Mona Nomura
|
September 7, 2009 5:22 PM
Thanks Mona. :-)
Posted by: Dave Winer
|
September 7, 2009 5:23 PM
In hindsight, Steve's obsession with the subject of real-time might have heightened our attention on the debate, but also perhaps hastened the development of rssCloud. I'm sure that in the back of Dave Winer's mind, he wanted to show that Twitter (and Friendfeed to some extent) wasn't the only real-time game in town (in addition to the fact that this hook was already available in RSS since 2001).
But let's be realistic. This is subject to the speed of adoption,- so once the subject of real-time is totally neutralized, and the level playing field is reached, then the discussion will shift to the Readers, Aggregators, discussion managers, desktop clients, knowledge managers and publishing mechanisms that need to present this content for the end-user in the most effective manners.
William, you'd be 100 percent wrong about that. I was doing this stuff before Twitter or FriendFeed existed.
Posted by: Dave Winer
|
September 7, 2009 5:45 PM
I'm not so sure Twitter was ever real time. Only centralized. This made it appear realtime. (Except for the lucky few - i.e. friendfeed)
Posted by: Jeremy Felt
|
September 7, 2009 5:48 PM
reagrdless of the prior art discussion, certainly dave's embrace of realtime is good news
Posted by: Steve Gillmor
|
September 7, 2009 5:52 PM
amen, Steve
Posted by: Jesse Stay
|
September 7, 2009 5:55 PM
@stevegillmor: prior art? What on earth are you trying to say in this context? Since when did prior art have anything to do with real time? Or have I missed something fundamental?
Posted by: Dennis Howlett
|
September 7, 2009 5:57 PM
Let's see what happens with all the million Wordpress.com blogs. But I have a felling this will be big but we won't see the impact for a few months
Posted by: Wayne Sutton
|
September 7, 2009 5:59 PM
@Dennis http://code.google.com/p/pubsubhubbub/wiki/PriorArt
Posted by: Stephen Edgar
|
September 7, 2009 6:03 PM
Its so great to see such a great feature being added by Wordpress.
Dave,
I'm glad I was wrong (as I hinted to the fact that you had that hook there from 2001). I recall well how Radio Userland and Manila used to interchange feeds in real-time.
You sure have kept us in suspense, til now, though!
For those who want more details about what the WP plugin does to support RSSCloud I've written up a post about it - http://josephscott.org/archives/2009/09/rsscloud-for-wordpress/
This is good but doesn't seem that great to me.
My life or even my Internet is not about to shift radically. It's another step towards quantity and away from quality. Not that the RSSCloud itself will lower quality it will just keep us focused on quantity (access speed) of information.
Seems to be some ranting comments, but I agree with Prateek (#7 comment). How is real time going to work with a service like Feedburner.
This is 10 kinds of sweet. Now, all I need to do is get people to subscribe and become addicted to my news.
Hey Marshall,
I agree WordPress has really proved to be an immensely useful blogging platform to millions of bloggers around the world by giving them a chance to get connected with global audiences.
Even my blog site is set up on WordPress and the RSS feature has made my blog site quite popular. Also, my web host,LimeDomains,has given round the clock accessibility to my website.
This makes the entire "RSS is dead" debate a more than a bit ridiculous. The game has just changed again and for the better.
RSSCloud hits the top in the real time web technology. WordPress gains top by acquiring RSSCloud. Eager to see how Google faces the situation with GoogleReader.
Plenty of companies in India are hiring fresher & experienced
professionals. Go through below site & utilize existing
opportunities.
jobs search in india
1 2 Next