Like a lot of things, with syndication formats it all seems to come out in the wash. Some of you may know that there are quite a few different kinds of XML feeds out there. One family consists of the RSS 0.91, 0.92 and 2.0 formats. RSS 1.0 is almost a different format (based on RDF) and there’s also RSS 1.1 in the works to follow on from that. Plus, for something completely different there is Atom.

Confused? You should be. The most recent comparison I could find is here and that also describes the politics involved, while an older (the age only really affects Atom and RSS 1.1) but more comprehensive comparison is made here.

In a nutshell, RSS 2.0 is simpler than RSS 1.x while Atom is also a publishing API allowing, for example, desktop apps to integrate with a blog – although there’s also the MetaWeblog API which is based on RSS and does much the same thing. Blogger uses Atom almost exclusively, I believe, while most blogging tools provide RSS feeds in some format or both of RSS and Atom. Practically everything else appears to use one of the RSS flavours. All of these formats can be extended with XML modules to the point that an RSS 2.0 feed can look almost identical to an RSS 1.0 feed, but Atom is a completely different animal.

I really don’t care much about the format politics. It seems most of the arguments centre around the semantics and the togetherness of the specifications rather than what they provide users of the feeds, which is what wins it in the end. Last year it seemed that Atom would supersede RSS as The Format To Use but with the emergence of podcasting, thanks to the Enclosure element in RSS 2.0, RSS seems to be on top again. Atom types will point out that the Atom link element can be used in the same way, and that you can have multiple enclosure-type links for each entry. That’s all very well, but I don’t know a “podder” app that supports Atom yet and the more flexible things are at the back end the more difficult it becomes to present and manage in the front end.

That’s where I think RSS 2.0 has the advantage as the use of feeds extends beyond the blogging world. RSS 2.0 is pretty simple and all the technomarvels in the world cannot beat that. I don’t see Atom or RDF going away – far from it – but I do see the three formats carving out their respective niches.

The interview with Adam Curry on BBC’s Click Online that featured in his podcast a few months ago is now available online, with accompanying article here.

Feeder and Yours Truly get a great mention on Show 19 of the MyMacGuys podcast as they break with their not-too-geeky tradition and run through what they do and use to get a show out.

As they say on the show, we’ve been trying to get together for an interview for a while, but what with my house move and their Skype problems it hasn’t happened yet, but probably will sometime.

Anyway, thanks guys!

Feeder gets not one but two mentions in the June issue of Macworld UK magazine, out 21st April 2005. The first in the Product News section on page 42, the second in Andy Ihnatko’s opinion piece at the back about using it for Podcasting. Thanks to Gillian Thompson from Macworld for letting me know in advance. 😀

Also Omni Group are now using Feeder for their news feed. Thanks to Scott Maier for making that happen. 😀

Having subjected myself to the iRiver podcast review / supermarket sound-seeing tour again, and having received some feedback, I should post some notes on the iRiver and Griffin Lapel Mic recording itself:

• I managed to take a better picture today of the iRiver and mic that doesn’t look like there’s a nasty fingerprint on the screen (this was actually corrected glare from the flash) and shows the pretty blue backlight.
• Apologies for the heavy breathing. It would appear the Griffin Lapel Mic is very sensitive and when swivelled into a vertical position for stealth purposes picked up the down-draught from my nostrils, making me sound like an asthmatic toad. Lovely.
• Likewise, you definitely need some sort of furry windshield for the mic because there was little more than a breeze, yet it sounded at times like I was in a hurricane.
• Dreadful sound quality on the music – I thought I had the levels right at first, but my car stereo automatically raises the volume when you go above a certain speed. You don’t notice this yourself because that’s the point. At 22 kilohertz you have a narrower range of frequencies than real life – hence the crackling – not the iRiver or mic’s fault
• I chose the supermarket because I thought it would be noisy enough that I didn’t feel self-conscious. I was wrong.