June 28th, 2005
Opinions cross the spectrum over Microsoft's RSS support
Updated 9:40 AM 6/30/05.
Updated with video clip 10:50 AM 6/29/05: In the days after Microsoft announced upcoming support for RSS at Gnomedex, bloggers/journalists/analysts spared no angle in dissecting and opining on what the new Microsoft format means to the world. For reference, here’s a video clip from Gnomedex 2005 in Seattle, with Dean Hachamovitch and Amar Gandhi of Microsoft’s Longhorn Browser and RSS Technology Group giving conference attendees a preview of how RSS will work in Microsoft’s long awaited OS upgrade.
If you’re looking to catch up on what people are saying about Microsoft’s foray into RSS, the following list is a good place to begin. The list starts with the more enthusiastic commentators:
Dave Winer: Quick postscript on the Microsoft announcement
I just spoke with Amar Gandhi and Sean Lyndersay of Microsoft at Gnomedex. They’ll revise their spec in response to concerns reported by Phil Ringnalda. This turns yesterday’s home run into a grand slam.
David Coursey: RSS: It’s Not Just for Bloggers Anymore
While this announcement doesn’t compare to the day a decade ago when Bill Gates stood up and committed Microsoft to making the Internet both accessible and useful, this is still a very good day.
Stephen O’Grady: MICROSOFT AND THE….CREATIVE COMMONS?
Some rights reserved, indeed. Kudos to Microsoft on a solid move.
Michael Gartenberg: First Complaints over the Microsoft/RSS announcement are off base IMHO
This is a win for MSFT, Longhorn, developers and customers.
David Berlind: Redmond RSS: Death knell to Atom? Birth of an ‘open’ era for Microsoft?
I’ll stick to my conclusions about how RSS can be extended to deal with scenarios that it’s not currently supporting as evidence that RSS has plenty of undiscovered potential left in it.
Updated: Steve Gillmor: Remix This
Going RSS puts Yahoo back in the pack again, certainly behind Microsoft and likely behind IAC. And the bow to Winer and RSS 2.0’s market force brings them closer to alignment with Apple around enclosures and creates an "everybody but Google" mulch for standards.
Phil Ringnalda: MS embraces RSS
Platform services: this makes life very good for people writing Windows-only, Longhorn-only aggregators, and having those people exist makes life good for Microsoft.
NowPublic: Lessig Endorses The Deathstar (Video)
Tristan Louis: Microsoft Loves RSS
So Microsoft gets an A for embracing RSS, another A for using namespaces (instead of creating a new version of RSS) and releasing their extension under a Creative Commons license, but gets an F for poor research in terms of introducing a new format.
Nick Finck: Microsoft to take RSS five steps backwards
They want to be able to do e-commerce via RSS. Yes, you read that correctly. The last thing we need now is yet another fork in the RSS spec.
Raving lunacy: Microsoft and RSS
Anytime Microsoft says "enhancement", it means more crap to work around or fix.
