Behind Microsoft’s RSS Move

Redmond puts a giant’s weight behind the rapidly growing technology of RSS.
June 27, 2005

Microsoft’s decision to build RSS technology into the upcoming Longhorn version of Windows and Internet Explorer 7 was greeted positively Monday by those already working with the fast-growing technology.

The RSS (really simple syndication) functionality in Longhorn is designed to make it easier for end users to discover and subscribe to RSS feeds, and for developers to incorporate RSS capabilities into applications. In addition, Microsoft announced Simple List Extensions to enable web sites to publish lists, such as photo albums, music playlists, and top 10 lists, as RSS feeds.

RSS technology has been rapidly adopted by web publishers and bloggers as a way of keeping readers apprised of the latest news, blog postings, and podcasts on their sites. Microsoft’s support for the standard gives the technology added legitimacy and offers the company a new way to attract the rapidly expanding RSS audience to its own sites.

Support for RSS within the next version of Internet Explorer will also help the browser catch up with Mozilla Firefox, which already natively supports RSS.

“The RSS functionality in Longhorn will enable developers to take advantage of underlying capabilities and tools, such as a common RSS feed list and common RSS feed store, to easily create a broad range of innovative applications for end users,” said a Microsoft spokesperson.

The company’s announcement at the Gnomedex conference in Seattle last Friday that it intends to support RSS took some participants by surprise. However, RSS has been gaining more proponents, with Audible.com also announcing Friday that it is beginning to offer audio content via RSS, and Attensa announcing a new RSS network and servers.

While some RSS devotees see Microsoft’s efforts as another way for the Redmond software giant to stake its claim in their territory, some RSS developers welcomed Microsoft’s acceptance of the technology.

“A bunch of people have asked if we see this as a huge threat to our business, and on the surface it may seem that way, but anything Microsoft does to further the adoption and awareness of RSS is a good thing for us,” said Greg Reinacker, chief technology officer of RSS platform provider NewsGator. “By building it into IE 7, it gives people an idea of what it’s about.”

RSS developers had been following news of Microsoft involvement in RSS via occasional postings on the blog of RSS 2.0 specification developer Dave Winer of UserLand. He reported last week that he was contacted by Robert Scoble of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer team back in March for his input and soon learned that Microsoft also had an in-house RSS team.

Mr. Reinacker added that NewsGator also benefited when Yahoo added RSS technology to My Yahoo because it increased awareness of RSS and prompted users to look for software like NewsGator’s that added extra functionality. NewsGator also offers RSS clients that run on Microsoft Outlook, mobile devices, and Windows Media Center television sets.

He dismissed suggestions that RSS support could divert Microsoft from its commitment to XML. “RSS is XML,” he said. “It’s a dialect of XML and an RSS feed is actually an XML document.”

He believes RSS’s rapidly growing popularity explains why Microsoft would take an interest.

Explosive Interest

“The whole RSS space is just exploding right now on the client side and on the publisher’s side with tools like we have now,” said Mr. Reinacker. “Two and a half years ago people were asking, ‘What’s RSS and why should I care?’ Now every publisher knows what RSS is all about. It’s a natural for Microsoft to want to build it into their platform.”

Microsoft hopes to extend RSS with Simple List Extensions to address the problem faced by content publishers when managing feeds that represent lists of items that are ordered and periodically changing.

To make these extensions available, Microsoft is offering what it calls a Creative Commons license.

“We’ve heard from our customers and the community that RSS is important and increasing in popularity,” said the Microsoft spokesperson. “Microsoft believes that RSS changes the dynamic of the Internet from simply browsing and searching to subscribing—the new way of consuming information on the web.”

Microsoft also says it shares similar goals with other RSS providers, even those with whom it will be competing.

“RSS in Longhorn is about ensuring that our customers get the functionality they’ve asked for,” said the spokesperson. “Microsoft welcomes competition because it drives innovation which benefits customers. Ultimately, we have a shared goal with other RSS providers in that we want to increase the adoption of RSS by users and developers.”