2006: Year of the Cast
I think I said that 2005 was the year of the Web Log (Blog). This year Really Simply Syndication (RSS) and its audio kin, the Podcast are going to be really big. In fact Microsoft has taken the RSS concept and arguably has built a user interface around it. The new IE7 in Vista will rely heavily on RSS.
In principle, RSS Really Is Simple. It is a rudimentary protocol that allows a web site to easily publish changes, which show up to us handily packaged headlines, if we happen to be interested in that site. RSS is a nod to the constantly changing sea of information on the internet, and it literally allows good sites to percolate to the top of our awareness by allowing changes to be broadcast. The concept trumps bookmarks - how many times have you deleted bookmarks that have gone stale or whose target address no longer works? It also beats e-mail based newsletters, which are difficult to cancel and suffer from many competing protocols. With RSS, when you're done with the feed, you simply turn it off.
The interface for RSS is (or should be) equally simple. It should hide behind the desktop and only quietly announce new headlines periodically. My choice for Windows is FeedReader, which is of course free.
Some of you may remember the concept of push news delivery, realized weakly almost a decade ago by a product called PointCast. It didn't work because it was a closed standard and, true to its name, it was pushy. There it was, right on your desktop, invading your space, often with stuff you didn't want. And admittedly, there was not a good deal of personally interesting content back then.
Our keynote speaker last night developed several products based on RSS, but RSS functioning in the background, so that even users with only web browser experience can take part it the fun. The first product was a meta-search engine called gada.be, which is a Belgium domain that was designed for easy entry into devices such as cell phones and PlayStation Portables. It also happens to sound like "Gotta Be," which is an extremely cool moniker for a search portal.
The best thing about Gada.be is its ease of use, particularly when referencing links from a Blog or Website. To search Gada.be for, say, BGAMUG, you would go to the site bgamug.gada.be.
The meta site only references sites that publish syndication RSS, however, as RSS takes off, this is a good thing. This means that your searches will provide content from websites that are serious about updates. I take back everything I've ever said bad about meta-search engines.
Anyone who has ever imbedded a link in an e-mail or web site needs to understand the impact of such a link to gade.be. Unless something replaces RSS, they are in every respect a persistent link, because it accesses changes in the site that it points to. Therefore you are giving your reader a lot more value and a currency that could not be found in a targeted link to, say, a Google search.
So, we still need Google.com, but Gade.be is a very cool solution for looking at rapidly changing pages.
Time to get ready for breakfast!
Mike
In principle, RSS Really Is Simple. It is a rudimentary protocol that allows a web site to easily publish changes, which show up to us handily packaged headlines, if we happen to be interested in that site. RSS is a nod to the constantly changing sea of information on the internet, and it literally allows good sites to percolate to the top of our awareness by allowing changes to be broadcast. The concept trumps bookmarks - how many times have you deleted bookmarks that have gone stale or whose target address no longer works? It also beats e-mail based newsletters, which are difficult to cancel and suffer from many competing protocols. With RSS, when you're done with the feed, you simply turn it off.
The interface for RSS is (or should be) equally simple. It should hide behind the desktop and only quietly announce new headlines periodically. My choice for Windows is FeedReader, which is of course free.
Some of you may remember the concept of push news delivery, realized weakly almost a decade ago by a product called PointCast. It didn't work because it was a closed standard and, true to its name, it was pushy. There it was, right on your desktop, invading your space, often with stuff you didn't want. And admittedly, there was not a good deal of personally interesting content back then.
Our keynote speaker last night developed several products based on RSS, but RSS functioning in the background, so that even users with only web browser experience can take part it the fun. The first product was a meta-search engine called gada.be, which is a Belgium domain that was designed for easy entry into devices such as cell phones and PlayStation Portables. It also happens to sound like "Gotta Be," which is an extremely cool moniker for a search portal.
The best thing about Gada.be is its ease of use, particularly when referencing links from a Blog or Website. To search Gada.be for, say, BGAMUG, you would go to the site bgamug.gada.be.
The meta site only references sites that publish syndication RSS, however, as RSS takes off, this is a good thing. This means that your searches will provide content from websites that are serious about updates. I take back everything I've ever said bad about meta-search engines.
Anyone who has ever imbedded a link in an e-mail or web site needs to understand the impact of such a link to gade.be. Unless something replaces RSS, they are in every respect a persistent link, because it accesses changes in the site that it points to. Therefore you are giving your reader a lot more value and a currency that could not be found in a targeted link to, say, a Google search.
So, we still need Google.com, but Gade.be is a very cool solution for looking at rapidly changing pages.
Time to get ready for breakfast!
Mike
posted by Michael Moore @ 6:14 AM
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