Longhorn and RSS

WaPo reports Microsoft Corp. said Friday that the next version of its Windows operating system will have built-in support for Internet data feeds, an increasingly popular way to get news and other information channeled straight to a computer. RSS, short for Really Simple Syndication, hasn't broken into widespread use yet, but the world's largest software maker believes it will become a mainstay. "We really believe that RSS is key to how people will be using the Internet in the future," said Megan Kidd, a Windows product manager. In the long-delayed Windows upgrade, code-named Longhorn and expected to be released late next year, an RSS icon will appear in the Internet Explorer Web browser to make it easy for people to find, much like Apple Computer Inc. has done with its Safari browser. Longhorn will store all data downloaded to a computer via RSS in a single place. It will maintain a central list of all of a computer user's RSS subscriptions, from Web log entries to photos pulled from an online family picture gallery. It will include a feature called simple list extensions that will let Web sites use RSS to publish lists of content that users can subscribe to, like a weekly run-down of chart-topping songs or an online gift registry.

It is nice that Microsoft has finally decided to embrace RSS, which Firefox has now. I just hope that it does not screw it up with it's extension to include lists of content.

Microsoft will make the list extensions technology available for free through a "creative commons" license, which lets the company retain some intellectual property rights while encouraging broader use of the technology.