"Microsoft said yesterday that the Web browser in the next generation of Windows will be able to detect, display and subscribe to streams of news and information in a format called RSS, an increasingly popular method of receiving content online," reports the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
"The feature, already included in rival browsers, is part of a broader push by the Redmond company to add RSS functions to the next Windows version, known as Longhorn, due out next year."
Microsoft says that in addition to the RSS functions in Internet Explorer, it will offer technology in Longhorn to make it easier for outside software developers to create Windows-based programs that draw on RSS streams. For example, someone making a calendar program could give users the ability, within the program, to subscribe to feeds of information related to appointments or events, said Megan Kidd, a group product manager in the Windows division.
Some new features involve the use of Microsoft's Simple List extension to RSS, as an Infoworld article makes clear.
Officials said the company is proposing its own Simple List extensions to RSS that will better allow the technology to support ordered lists of information. Presently, RSS feeds are sent and received as streams of messages with their order being determined only by the time they were sent. Microsoft's extensions are reportedly offering a way to add ordering information so RSS feeds can more intelligently handle, for instance, a Web site's list of best-selling items.
"The RSS [Simple List] extensions we are developing can allow a content publisher to enable a Web site to publish feeds that represent ordered lists of items. We will make these extensions widely available to developers through the Creative Commons [license]," said Megan Kidd, a group product manager on the Windows team.
