Monday, May 10, 2004

The Atom Format as Misguided Format Somebody wants to profit from the Atom syndication format and exclude the RSS format's history as well as the installed RSS user base. They are late in the game, so I believe there is only a small chance they will be successful in marginalizing RSS. "Marginilization" is one of the oldest strategies in over 500 years of capitalism - attain an economy of scale larger than the guy you want to crush. This is a strategy that ends up benefiting a few monopolists, but often is harmful to industries as a whole. This is an open letter to those who are crafting and supporting the Atom format. Your ethics and reputation are in question. I encourage you to support RSS and the users who built a true phenomenon. Monopolize at your own risk. In the future, you may encounter potential business partners with very long memories. - Gary Santoro Finally a clue to what Google means when they say that omitting RSS support is an engineering issue. They told San Jose Mercury News editor Dan Gillmor that they couldn't afford the server resources to maintain two feeds for each user. Dan wonders if this is true, and so do I. [Scripting News] 9:02:15 PM