With all the talk about how few people are using RSS/ Atom/ web feeds, I'm thinking there could be a lot more people using RSS without having to completely understand the technology.

Here's a specific example: The new Firefox browser has an extension called RSS Panel (v1.18) which displays a floating, collapsible box - in your browser tab - which lists recent "headlines" from the feed (if there is one) of the website you are browsing. I use this feature every day, when I use my Firefox browser.

Now, one might argue that you would have to install this extension and thus at least have an idea of what it does if you did so. That's true, but this is an example. Suppose default settings of browsers, released anytime after the time of this writing, had such features. Or say someone came up with a simple-to-use desktop RSS app that generated podcasts and vodcasts.

In both cases, RSS (or Atom) would be used in the background. The end user, and even the publisher, wouldn't really need to know that they're using RSS - beyond some cursory idea. Consider that many Internet users have never seen HTML code and yet they use apps that use it daily. Why shouldn't that also be the way for web feeds?

So, my feeling is that we web feed evangelists should push the usage of RSS and Atom at two levels: marketing and technical. If you'll allow me to say so, I think that this is what Rok and I are trying to accomplish. (And please feel free to comment on any or all of the blog entries.)

(c) Copyright: 2005-present, Raj Kumar Dash, http://www.chameleonintegration.com/