Duking it Out Over What to Call RSS
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Written By Reprise Media | August 18, 2005 | Share This
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“RSS” or “Atom” may be more technically correct, but that’s not Microsoft’s concern.
The firm is currently in the process of finding a new name for RSS, which will be a part of the new operating system it will be rolling out next year. Whether or not it’s user-friendly will be key.
The term “web feeds” was used by Microsoft Program Manager Jane Kim in this blog post a short while ago. Here’s an excerpt:
“In Beta 1, we’re calling them “web feeds. We’re still actively exploring what is the right name to use for RSS feeds, so if you have any ideas or opinions, please post to comments.”
This touched off a number of responses both positive and negative from the blogosphere. David Winer is peeved, which should come as no surprise since he’s a purist who’s also against the idea of ads in feeds for everyone except select bloggers.
This is one of those issues where you can see both sides. Scoble says the term “DVD” isn’t particularly engaging and we got used to that, while Brad Hill makes the good point that progress & adoption matter more than purity.
In the grand scheme of things the semantics matter little, the ultimate goal is getting users engaged.
Topics: RSS |
FYI: Move over RSS 2.0 (1.0, .93, .92) here comes something meatier: RSS 3.0 Specs are up for review (http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/08/18/1353238&tid=95) - That Girl From Marketing