Friday, June 24, 2005 5:54 PM
Lots and lots of buzz today regarding Microsoft's announcements concerning the integration of Really Simple Syndication into its upcoming "Longhorn" operating system. There are not a ton of details and specifics as of yet, but today's announcement was one of the first "on the record" pronouncements from Microsoft about its plans to commit to RSS.
Changes afoot for the average technology user are that it will soon be even easier to subscribe to and read blawgs as well as any other XML reader compatible feed sources. Changes afoot for the blawgosphere in general are that given Microsoft's dominant market share on the desktop, the day is coming wherein the software necessary for the average person to participate (whether reading, writing or commenting) in the blawgosphere will be standard issue rather than something they have to go and get. This latter point is really big. As PC Magazine writes, "This [move by Microsoft] essentially makes RSS capability on Longhorn as ubiquitous as the Desktop."
From all accounts, we will start to get the first view of Microsoft's plans for RSS when it releases the next version of its web browser, Internet Explorer 7. Until then, stay tuned.