CNET notes that
Microsoft is brainstorming to find a new name for RSS, which it will use when the new operating system comes out next
year. "Web feeds" has been suggested. Dave Winer, inventor of the original RSS spec,
is offended, but he has shown a
reflexive resistance to the evolution of his brainchild in other ways, notably the commercialization of RSS feeds.
Evolution and change are inevitable. RSS is not a particularly user-friendly name; "feeds" is better and "Web feeds" is
pretty good. According to Winer: "How can you claim to support a feature when the name of the feature appears
nowhere?" This would mean that Yahoo! does not support RSS because it doesn't mention the term "RSS" to its
users.
What many inventors, developers, and geekly thinkers in general don't realize is that a name can really get in the way
of consumer adoption. (Not necessarily; winer correctly mentions CD and DVD.) Perhaps purity of evolution is more
important to some developers than widespread penetration of the technology, but the world marches on. Winer
complained about how Apple implemented RSS in
iTunes 4.9, which is doing more to spread awareness, distribution, and listenership of podcasts than any program or
service before it.
Progress. Adoption. They are more important than purity, and more inevitable.
Microsoft Fishing for a New Name for RSS
Reader Comments
(Page 1)2. May I suggest CDF as the new name for RSS?
Posted at 4:46AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Randy Charles Morin
1. The CD and DVD argument doesn't hold water with me. A CD is a music CD, it plays in all players. A CD-ROM is what goes in the computer. Likewise, a DVD is actually, to 99% of consumers, a DVD video disc. A typical consumer would call a DVD-ROM a DVD-ROM, and a DVD Audio disc a DVD Audio disc.. a "DVD" means something they watch on their TV.
RSS and Atom are the two feed formats out there. We have a few choices. We either keep referring to them as RSS and Atom and confuse the heck out of consumers.. or we stick to the name we already have.. "feeds". We already say "RSS feed" and "Atom feed", so going with the generic "feed" is no big deal. It keeps the consumers sweet, it reduces the confusion, and it gets everyone looking at the whole industry rather than a specific version of a format. With the recent developments to OPML, it becomes all the more essential to have a generic name.
Winer is just getting out of his pram because he still detests that RSS isn't the only syndication format out there.
Posted at 4:46AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Peter Cooper