Bengaluru Chow Chow Bath
Thursday, June 16, 2005
The new internet gatekeeper: RSS
A new disruptive technology to hit the internet world is the "RSS". ("Really Simple Syndication" or "Rich Site Summary") Is their any business opportunity in this RSS? What skill set does an average programmer require to hop on to this bandwagon?
Well I am putting the cart before the horse. Lets start first by understanding what is RSS.
Their is virtual consensus among geeks (a very rare quality) that the credit for the initial development of RSS should be given to Netscape. But from there on things have become real murky. RSS version 1.0 and 2.0 were released, (nothing new) but the problem was different companies were responsible for developing version 1 and version 2. And as with any new software development version 1 and 2 are like chalk and cheese. To muddy the waters further, a third company has joined the fray with a new standard called atom. Would there be a uniform standard is anybody's guess.
Assume that you read 10 blogs, google news and 3 online newspapers daily. You need to open atleast 14 browsers and need to refresh them periodically to catch up with the latest news. A very painful task. To avoid all these we have a magic wand called RSS. Each of these websites would now create a xml based file. (an orange icon called xml is an indication that the website has an "RSS feed"). You would now download RSS readers like feedster,SharpReader,newsgator etc. These "Really Simple Syndication" or "Rich Site Summary" readers are basically content aggregators.You would now configure the url of the website you read daily in this RSS reader.(or right click on the orange icon and collect the RSS feed url of the required website). From here on things become very simple. "RSS reader" would collect information from the configured site and present it to you in very delightful manner. You get to see any new post to a blog or any breaking new without having to break your head.
Is their a business opportunity? During a gold rush guys who sell picks and shovel make money. Same logic holds good. Always the door keeper makes money (remember the key maker in Matrix?) RSS feed readers are now trying to ensure that the web traffic passes through them. Though RSS is not in its infancy (by internet standards) the story is not yet over and we can be assured of more action in this segment.
With biggies like Google, Microsoft becoming serious players, (there are readers which read the RSS feed into MS Outlook) exponential increase in the number of RSS readers, new niche players, Value added services, shakeout and buyout are on the cards.
For the software programmer, a good understanding of internet technologies, especially "XML" is a very good way to make a mark in this segement.
Stay tuned for more information on RSS feed, readers and more. ¶ 8:26 PM 1 comments
Well I am putting the cart before the horse. Lets start first by understanding what is RSS.
Their is virtual consensus among geeks (a very rare quality) that the credit for the initial development of RSS should be given to Netscape. But from there on things have become real murky. RSS version 1.0 and 2.0 were released, (nothing new) but the problem was different companies were responsible for developing version 1 and version 2. And as with any new software development version 1 and 2 are like chalk and cheese. To muddy the waters further, a third company has joined the fray with a new standard called atom. Would there be a uniform standard is anybody's guess.
Assume that you read 10 blogs, google news and 3 online newspapers daily. You need to open atleast 14 browsers and need to refresh them periodically to catch up with the latest news. A very painful task. To avoid all these we have a magic wand called RSS. Each of these websites would now create a xml based file. (an orange icon called xml is an indication that the website has an "RSS feed"). You would now download RSS readers like feedster,SharpReader,newsgator etc. These "Really Simple Syndication" or "Rich Site Summary" readers are basically content aggregators.You would now configure the url of the website you read daily in this RSS reader.(or right click on the orange icon and collect the RSS feed url of the required website). From here on things become very simple. "RSS reader" would collect information from the configured site and present it to you in very delightful manner. You get to see any new post to a blog or any breaking new without having to break your head.
Is their a business opportunity? During a gold rush guys who sell picks and shovel make money. Same logic holds good. Always the door keeper makes money (remember the key maker in Matrix?) RSS feed readers are now trying to ensure that the web traffic passes through them. Though RSS is not in its infancy (by internet standards) the story is not yet over and we can be assured of more action in this segment.
With biggies like Google, Microsoft becoming serious players, (there are readers which read the RSS feed into MS Outlook) exponential increase in the number of RSS readers, new niche players, Value added services, shakeout and buyout are on the cards.
For the software programmer, a good understanding of internet technologies, especially "XML" is a very good way to make a mark in this segement.
Stay tuned for more information on RSS feed, readers and more. ¶ 8:26 PM 1 comments
