BlogBrowser (tm) .net / RSS Weblog Guide

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RSS (file format) / Really Simple Syndication

RSS is a family of XML file formats for web syndication used by news websites and weblogs. The abbreviation stands for one of the following standards:

• Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91)
• RDF Site Summary (RSS 0.9, 1.0 and 1.1)
• Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0)

RSS provides short descriptions of web content together with links to the full versions of the content. This information is delivered as an XML file called RSS feed, webfeed, RSS stream, or RSS channel. In addition to facilitating syndication, RSS allows a website's frequent readers to track updates on the site using a news aggregator.

Usage

RSS is widely used by the weblog community to share the latest entries' headlines or their full text, and even attached multimedia files. (See podcasting, broadcatching and MP3 blogs.)

In 2004 and 2005, after several years of use by early adopters, use of RSS spread to many major news organizations, including Reuters, the Associated Press and the BBC. Under various usage agreements, providers allow other websites to incorporate their "syndicated" headline or headline-and-short-summary feeds.

A program known as a feed reader or aggregator can check RSS-enabled webpages on behalf of a user and display any updated articles that it finds. It is now common to find RSS feeds on major web sites, as well as many smaller ones.

Client-side readers and aggregators are typically constructed as standalone programs or extensions to existing programs like web browsers.

Web-based feed readers and news aggregators require no software installation and make the user's "feeds" available on any computer with Web access. Some aggregators syndicate (combine) RSS feeds into new feeds, e.g. take all football related items from several sports feeds and provide a new football feed. There are also search engines for RSS feeds like Feedster, Technorati, Pluck or Plazoo.

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Wanted: Blog Talent - Opinion Leaders/Writers

Are you ready to become an online leader of a community of people who share your interests? Every Blog Opinion Leaders's mission is to create an simple, intuitive and gratifying experience for people interested in this topic.

The Perfect BlogBrowser Writer/Editor has...
- A true knowledge of and a passion for this topic
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Atom (standard)

Atom is an XML-based document format and HTTP-based protocol designed for the syndication of Web content such as weblogs and news headlines to Web sites as well as directly to user agents. It is based on experience gained in using the various versions of RSS. Atom was briefly known as "Echo".

The completed Atom specification was submitted to the IETF for approval in June 2005, the final step in becoming an RFC Internet Standard Implementors are urged to wait until the spec is finished before deploying it, so that interoperability problems are minimized. The latest Atom data format and publishing protocols are linked from the Working Group's home page.

Before the Atom work entered the IETF process is referred, the group produced "Atom 0.3", which has support from a fairly wide variety of syndication tools both on the publishing and consuming side. In particular, it is generated by several Google-related services, namely Blogger and Gmail.

As well as a replacement for RSS (the "Atom Syndication Format"), the Atom Project is producing the "Atom Publishing Protocol", with a similar aim of improving on and replacing existing publishing mechanisms, such as the Blogger API and LiveJournal XML-RPC Client/Server Protocol.

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Creating And Publishing Weblogs

Since their introduction, a number of software packages have appeared to allow people to create their own weblog. Blog hosting sites and Web services to provide editing via the Web have proliferated. Common examples include GreatestJournal, Pitas, Blogger, LiveJournal, DeadJournal and Xanga.

Many more advanced bloggers prefer to generate their blogs by using server-side web applications such as Nucleus CMS, Movable Type, bBlog, WordPress, b2evolution, boastMachine, Antville and Serendipity to publish on their own website or a third party site, or to host a group of blogs for a company or school. Such programs provide greater flexibility and power, but require more knowledge. If they provide a Web interface for editing, server-based systems make it easy for travelers to create and edit text; many travelers like to produce their travelblogs from Internet cafes while they travel around the globe.

In addition, some people program their own blogs from scratch by using PHP, CGI, ASP, Perl, or other server side software. While these are much more difficult to create, they add a maximum potential for creativity.

Two features which are common to blogging are "blogrolls" and "commenting" or "feedback."

A blogroll is a list of other blogs that are linked separately from any article. This is one means by which a blogger creates a context for his blog, by listing other blogs that are similar to his/her own, or blogs the blogger thinks may be of relevance to users. It is also used as measure of the number of citations a blog has, and is used to rank "blog authority" in a manner similar to the way that Google uses hard coded HTML linking to create "page rank." Still another use of the "blogroll" is reciprocal linking: bloggers agree to link to each other, or link to another blog in hopes of getting a link in return.

Another central, and sometimes controversial, aspect of blogging is the use of a feedback comment systems. A comment system allows users to post their own comments on an article or "thread." Some blogs do not have comments, or have a closed commenting system which requires approval from those running the blog. For other bloggers, including several very prominent ones, comments are the crucial feature which distinguishes a "true" blog from other kinds of blogs. Commenting can either be built into the software, or added by using a service such as HaloScan. If a blog has regular commenters, this is referred to as the blog's community.

Tools such as Ecto and w.bloggar allow users to maintain their Web hosted blog without the need to be online while composing or editing posts. Enhancements to weblog technology continue to be developed, such as the TrackBack feature introduced by Movable Type in 2002 and subsequently adopted by other software companies (e.g., Userland) to enable automatic notification between websites of related content—such as a post on a particular topic or one which responds to a post on another blog. bBlog has gone as far as implementing threaded trackbacks on comments, and comments on trackbacks.

Blogs with features such as TrackBack are credited with complicating search engine page ranking techniques. Integrating these into search engines has proven to be a challenge, and has been used to deliberately "push" page rankings. However, as one Google executive remarked, it is the search engine's job to find the ways that a website represents a "vote" for another website.

Web hosting companies and online publications also provide blog creation tools, such as Salon, Tripod, Bravenet and America Online, which calls its subscriber blogs "journals."

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One of the pioneers of the tools that make blogging more than merely websites that scroll is Dave Winer. One of his most important contributions was the creation of servers which weblogs would ping to show that they had been updated. Blog reading utilities, such as Blogrolling, use the aggregated update data to show a user when their favorite blogs have new posts.

Welcome To BlogBrowser (tm) dot net

A weblog about the interests, the curiosity, the passions, of weblogs. BlogBrowser reveals the smart edge of the culture: style, sites, things, and trends that intelligent, successful, and independent readers want, need, and ought to know about. It has no limitations other than the imagination and intelligence of its writers. BlogBrowser is less restricted, less predictable, than any other blog and has as its single goal to thrill and challenge its readers.

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Keyword Tags

BlogBrowser (tm) dot com / Weblog Guide And Simple RSS Reader

• Minimal blog reader which supports RSS and Atom feeds

• RSSFilter / RSS Filter
• XMLFilter / XML Filter
• AtomFilter / Atom Filter

tags: blogbrowser, blog browser / blogbrowser