Sniptools

If you are not using RSS, you’re missing the hassle-free future of the Internet.

So, the world now has RSS (as does this, my own site.) Click here for a gentle introduction to RSS. For research and news junkies like myself it is a zillion times more productive to read RSS than to wade through HTML (regular web sites)… You don’t have to sit around sipping coffee for the browser to load. You don’t have to scour the web pages for “What’s New.” No ads and all the other flashy pop-in distractions. Same font and layout for all content which is in YOUR control. Some have said it is like “Tivo for the Web”. I think the same may hold true for mobile devices.

But what is RSS? RSS Stands for RDF Site Summary (RDF stands for Resource Description Framework, wow- that’s geeky) but most people rightly say RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and that’s what it is: an easy way to syndicate information from most of your favorite sites. What does RSS actually do? Well, if you’ve ever seen those little orange XML/RSS buttons on sites that means the site’s headlines and stories do not need to be read by a crummy ole’ web browser, but by a (you guessed it) RSS reader. You can add all your favorite sites to a RSS reader and read dozens of sites in a quick, easy, ad free, spam free way. More good news, most sites have RSS feeds (NYTimes, CNET, CNN, you name it) there are many RSS readers to choose from and you can even read RSS feeds on your PDA, phone and even iPods!

Even the mainstream media is picking up on it, CNN: Welcome to the New Web

Okay so I’m sold, so what does the future hold for RSS and mobile devices?

RSS, by its nature is somewhat simple, standards based, XML, text, all stuff that is small and easy to transport. It gets better; it usually looks great on small screens too. Try and read your favorite sites on any mobile browser, unless they make a special mobile version, you’re usually out of luck. Not so with RSS, usually, you can read all your sites, or at the minimum see all the headlines and descriptions of the news you may want to see later on system which is made for large amounts of text viewing, like a computer. I usually read the headlines on my device and mobile browsers like Opera or Pocket IE do a pretty good job of rendering the pages, but I’d never want to go to each site and see what’s new, that’s what RSS is for.

Yes, but what about WAP?

Some say WAP is dead (long live RSS). I kinda agree. The only part that is left is to have the destination sites all in XML, then you have nice clean data, and most/all mobile devices will display it. If carriers and OEMs would have adopted RSS as opposed to WAP and allowed everyone to make their own feeds, publishing lots and lots of content for phones, perhaps many wouldn’t have lost their shirts on trying to do WAP based destinations. Now, I read all my sites on my phone, I never could or would do that with WAP.

Carriers and device makers “could” build in an RSS reader on phones now, but that’s not likely, at least not for the next year or so, 3rd party apps will be the way to go. Some might ask, what about AvantGo? AvantGo (www.avantgo.com) was a way to deliver content to mobile devices, but it didn’t really allow anyone to do so, they allowed custom channels, but once it got popular you had to remove it (or pay quite a bit of money). AvantGo’s model had their servers in the center, RSS is on the edge- anyone can publish. Lastly, you’d need to publish to AvantGo’s spec, with RSS most tools that post to sites automatically create RSS feeds. AvantGo might suffer the same fate as WAP soon (not many desitnations). When was the last time you signed up for a “new” AvantGo channel? For me, it’s been over a year. That said, AvantGo is still a good solution if you’re disconnected for long periods of time and Sync-n-Go more than connect on the go, but that’s become less and less common.

In conclusion, RSS might be pretty good for mobile devices, in fact I think it’ll be so popular its likely people won’t notice or care what it is, or where it came from. It will be a pervasive part of our mobile device experience; you’ll get news, articles and posts from the blogs you like to read, all on your mobile device displayed in a great way. For now, it’s a bit geeky, not what anyone would call mainstream, so perhaps this is just a crystal ball view, but it’s not a bad one.

Addendum: A reader recently wrote to me about Google’s “adsense” context-sensitive ads appearing on the right on this page, apparently the suggestions are pretty good. Check them out for some free tools for feed readers. As I write, the ad being displayed is “Awasu Free Reader” which looks quite good!

This post is tagged Musings