RSSCloud is a new format specification for feeds that solves polling and notification issues. It works by adding a cloud element to a feed which describes the path to a cloud server that should be notified when a feed is updated. The cloud server, in-turn, will send the updated feed content to all subscribers and aggregators. There is a description of this process on the RSSCloud website.
The protocol was designed by Dave Winer, who also drafted the original RSS specification and pioneered the use of feeds as a way to aggregate content. RSSCloud allows feeds to be more responsive and real-time. Rather than a polling model (’are we there yet, are we there yet’), it pushes updates and update notifications down to subscribers via a cloud server and API.
The new protocol took a big step forward today as Wordpress.com enabled the cloud tag on all post feeds (comment feeds will be enabled at some later point). Winer tweeted about it today, and Automattic’s Matt Mullenweg has since confirmed in an email that all Wordpress.com blog feeds now support the tag. If you view the source of a feed on Wordpress, such as this one, you can see the new tag:
<cloud domain='rsscloud.wordpress.com' port='80' path='/?rsscloud=notify' registerProcedure='' protocol='http-post' />
A cloud notification server is defined for each channel in the feed. This now means that client tools that support the new protocol will be pushed updates whenever there is a new post on a Wordpress.com blog that the user has subscribed to.
This could also mean the beginning of a new format war for the real-time web, reminiscent of the old RSS vs Atom battles. Another groups of developers, lead by Brad Fitzpatrick, published a format and cloud hub known as pubsubhubbub, which is now being supported by Google Reader. There is sure to be much discussion of Wordpress.com falling into the RSSCloud camp, and which protocol/format/method etc. is better than the other (a debate we will engage in on this blog, no doubt).
Services such as Twitter and Friendfeed centralize real-time data and updates. RSSCloud and broader support of such a protocol is a step in the direction of decentralizing such services.
Update: The Wordpress.com blog now has a post about the update
Use RSSCloud on your self-hosted wordpress with this plugin:
http://wordpres...ugins/rsscloud/
Just did
A really nice thing from Wordpress.
It’s great to see this things coming to life!
What on Earth are clouds doing with webservers? Fog breaks their circuits!
Wait! I thought you said RSS was dead!?
I think so .. I saw some sort of article .. here on techcrunch that RSS is dead…
It sure is! I mean I never use my Live Bookmarks for anything…
The <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grbSQ6O6kbs"RSS-MP spec is getting better and feels fine… ready to go for a walk in fact.
FAIL
The RSS-MP spec is getting better and feels fine… ready to go for a walk in fact.
Is it called RSSCloud for any reason other than that it was released in 2009, a year when tech pundits like to talk about cloud computing?
I.e., is there any reason it wouldn’t work behind a firewall, between non-datacenter hosts, or on a private network?
It was actually released years ago – see this post from 2001: http://www.thet...om/soapmeetsrss
Yes, it would work behind a firewall on a private network. And as Stuartm pointed out it was spec’d in early 2001.
So did TCP/IP in 60s. My hat’s off for this elegant solution.
Can someone please explain in plain English what is this thing does? I think that even the person who’ve written this post understands this completely.
Here is a nice drawing by Dave Winer
http://rsscloud...alkthrough.html
Well the drawing helped me lol thanks for the explanation
Didn’t TC just proclaim that RSS was dead a few days ago? You can’t have this both ways my friend.
This is awesome, however I do agree, the name could be all buzz!
And…why is this story accompanied by a picture and video of The Simpsons?
Are we there yet? No, Are we there yet? No, Are we there yet? No, Are we there yet? No, Are we there yet? No, Are we there yet? No, Are we there yet? No, Are we there yet? No, Are we there yet? No, Are we there yet? No, Are we there yet? Yes
The video is a reference to how polling works.
This solution would result in.
Are we there yet?… Yes
has anyone tested the self hosted plugin?
Yep.
I’ve write an app for real-time sync google reader shared item to twitter. It’s using pubsubhubbub
http://reader2t...er.appspot.com/
Great. Something else 99 percent of people will never use or care about. I’m pretty sure winer is just wanting to put something else on his resume.
At least we know how this will end. A giant fight over how created what and which we should use. At least that part will be fun.
RSS is dead. Long live RSS. Awesome to see these new light-weight and powerful technology coming to life so fast.
Is there a definitive list of services that support this standard?
This is all bringing back haunting memories of PointCast…
interesting. thanks for letting us know.
The original RSS specification was drafted at Netscape and not by Dave Winer.
Basically RSS cloud will work just like Tag cloud or something else?
OK, stupid question time from a non-techie. Does any of this positively impact those of us using Feedburner?
The Greek
There are two factual errors in this article. The RSS cloud element is not new. It was introduced in RSS 0.92 in 2000. Also, the authors of the “original RSS specification” were Ramanathan Guha and Dan Libby of Netscape, not Dave Winer.
let me get this right you can get a rss cloud working just like a tag cloud thats brilliant