5 ms·

Who says RSS is dead ?

15 points by tekunik 17y ago

alexandros 17y ago
I guess it's in vain to ask people to stop calling feeds 'RSS' when there's a better format we should all be standardising around...
- wglb 17y ago
  Atom?
- tome 17y ago
  Please summarize what's better about Atom for me, I'm interested. (I assume you mean Atom, as the other respondent did).
  - alexandros 17y ago
    perhaps this will help: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atom_%28standard%29#Atom_compared_to_RSS_2.0 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atom_%28standard%29#Atom_compar... but the most important, for me, is that Atom is a group effort under the IETF rather than an ad-hoc spec in one person's head. All other benefits are the result of that.
- briansmith 17y ago
  Atom was created because the RSS people refused to fix the ambiguities with RSS. Almost immediately after Atom was finalized, the RSS people changed their mind and fixed the big issues. So now there's really not much reason to choose Atom instead of RSS. Atom ended up being a big waste of time; actually, it wasn't a mere waste of time, it is actually harmful. Now everybody who deals with feeds has to deal with 4 kinds of RSS + Atom, instead of just 4 kinds of RSS.
  - jacquesm 17y ago
    You could argue that Atom wasn't a waste of time because it got the RSS people to fix their stuff. It's a great example of why competition is good.
robotron 17y ago
Who is actually saying RSS/Atom is dead? I use it heavily - via Google Reader. I even have feeds of certain Twitter users, bypassing the need to follow via Twitter.
- MicahWedemeyer 17y ago
  Techcrunch said it...morons (them, not you).
  - tekunik 17y ago
    http://www.techcrunchit.com/2009/05/05/rest-in-peace-rss/ http://www.techcrunchit.com/2009/05/05/rest-in-peace-rss/ btw it has gained more importance after pubsubhubbub and rsscloud.
- mattyb 17y ago
  Wow, I thought I was the only person that does this. Google Reader makes viewing older tweets much, much easier than twitter.com (or ÜberTwitter for that matter).
MicahWedemeyer 17y ago
I use RSS/Atom all the time from an API standpoint. It's an excellent starting point for publishing data to an external 3rd party.
ticktock 17y ago
i'm trying this out now: http://gr.aiderss.com/ http://gr.aiderss.com/ I can see it becoming useful
elblanco 17y ago
Nobody.
jacquesm 17y ago
RSS is alive and kicking, plenty of really big applications depend on it for their functioning. FB, Google News, Twitter and a whole pile of others would be unthinkable without RSS as a service underneath to take care of a good bit of the 'plumbing'. RSS is not very 'sexy', but then again neither is a transistor.
greyman 17y ago
I've got a more interesting question: Is RSS the best technology for delivering daily reading? I tended to think so and I have been an avid user of Google Reader, which diligently delivers a new stuff to read every day. But after some time I discovered one negative side of feed reading - namely, it fosters the attachment to always check whether there is something new to read. For example, I go through all my feeds, and then one hour later I again would check whether there is something new. Of course, everything can become an addiction when one does it too much, but in case of RSS, it seems to me that it is something innate in this technology. Simply, the way it works it might create a feeling of "obligation" to clear all unread feeds. Currently, I am working on developing another system, which would deliver interesting stuff to me more efficiently and my ultimate goal is to get rid of feed reader. For same websites I read daily like HN, I am now using old-fashioned bookmarks. Then, there are some other areas I want to follow, for example, "minimalism". Now, instead of subscribing myself to 10 feeds about minimalism and check them several times per day, I am now using twitter search and services like Tweetmeme. The rationale behind this is, that if someone writes something worth reading, it will almost sure be retweeted. At least in my case, I think the future is to use some service built on twitter to find what is being tweeted, without being psychologically shackled by "subscriptions".
sjs 17y ago
RSS isn't dead, my sisters just discovered it a year or two back.

15 points by tekunik 17y ago

I guess it's in vain to ask people to stop calling feeds 'RSS' when there's a better format we should all be standardising around...

wglb 17y ago
Atom?
tome 17y ago
Please summarize what's better about Atom for me, I'm interested. (I assume you mean Atom, as the other respondent did).
- alexandros 17y ago
  perhaps this will help: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atom_%28standard%29#Atom_compared_to_RSS_2.0 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atom_%28standard%29#Atom_compar... but the most important, for me, is that Atom is a group effort under the IETF rather than an ad-hoc spec in one person's head. All other benefits are the result of that.
briansmith 17y ago
Atom was created because the RSS people refused to fix the ambiguities with RSS. Almost immediately after Atom was finalized, the RSS people changed their mind and fixed the big issues. So now there's really not much reason to choose Atom instead of RSS. Atom ended up being a big waste of time; actually, it wasn't a mere waste of time, it is actually harmful. Now everybody who deals with feeds has to deal with 4 kinds of RSS + Atom, instead of just 4 kinds of RSS.
- jacquesm 17y ago
  You could argue that Atom wasn't a waste of time because it got the RSS people to fix their stuff. It's a great example of why competition is good.

robotron 17y ago

Who is actually saying RSS/Atom is dead? I use it heavily - via Google Reader. I even have feeds of certain Twitter users, bypassing the need to follow via Twitter.

MicahWedemeyer 17y ago
Techcrunch said it...morons (them, not you).
- tekunik 17y ago
  http://www.techcrunchit.com/2009/05/05/rest-in-peace-rss/ http://www.techcrunchit.com/2009/05/05/rest-in-peace-rss/ btw it has gained more importance after pubsubhubbub and rsscloud.
mattyb 17y ago
Wow, I thought I was the only person that does this. Google Reader makes viewing older tweets much, much easier than twitter.com (or ÜberTwitter for that matter).

MicahWedemeyer 17y ago

I use RSS/Atom all the time from an API standpoint. It's an excellent starting point for publishing data to an external 3rd party.

ticktock 17y ago

i'm trying this out now: http://gr.aiderss.com/ http://gr.aiderss.com/ I can see it becoming useful

elblanco 17y ago

Nobody.

jacquesm 17y ago

RSS is alive and kicking, plenty of really big applications depend on it for their functioning. FB, Google News, Twitter and a whole pile of others would be unthinkable without RSS as a service underneath to take care of a good bit of the 'plumbing'. RSS is not very 'sexy', but then again neither is a transistor.

greyman 17y ago

I've got a more interesting question: Is RSS the best technology for delivering daily reading? I tended to think so and I have been an avid user of Google Reader, which diligently delivers a new stuff to read every day. But after some time I discovered one negative side of feed reading - namely, it fosters the attachment to always check whether there is something new to read. For example, I go through all my feeds, and then one hour later I again would check whether there is something new. Of course, everything can become an addiction when one does it too much, but in case of RSS, it seems to me that it is something innate in this technology. Simply, the way it works it might create a feeling of "obligation" to clear all unread feeds. Currently, I am working on developing another system, which would deliver interesting stuff to me more efficiently and my ultimate goal is to get rid of feed reader. For same websites I read daily like HN, I am now using old-fashioned bookmarks. Then, there are some other areas I want to follow, for example, "minimalism". Now, instead of subscribing myself to 10 feeds about minimalism and check them several times per day, I am now using twitter search and services like Tweetmeme. The rationale behind this is, that if someone writes something worth reading, it will almost sure be retweeted. At least in my case, I think the future is to use some service built on twitter to find what is being tweeted, without being psychologically shackled by "subscriptions".

sjs 17y ago

RSS isn't dead, my sisters just discovered it a year or two back.