Web Syndication Leon Wu Columbia University April 10, 2007

Web Syndication  Web syndication is a form of syndication in which a section of a website is made available for other websites to use. (check out a website that aggregates most popular websites)  Web feed is the most popular kind of web syndication. A web feed is a document (often XML-based) which contains content items with web links to longer versions. The two main web feed formats are RSS and Atom.

Pros and Cons  Pros  Simplify the information retrieval process in an information overloaded world  Efficient  Autonomic  Secure  Private  Cons  Websites tend to make the description too short  Users still need to click the link to retrieve full content

Web Feed  RSS  File extension:.rss,.xml  MIME type: application/rss+xml  History and Specification:  First created as RDF Site Summary (v0.9) by Ramanathan V. Guha of Netscape in March 1999 for use on the My Netscape portal.  In September 2002, Dave Winer, a software developer and entrepreneur, released RSS 2.0 spec and emphasized “Really Simple Syndication” as meaning of RSS.  In July 2003, Winer and his company Userland Software assigned ownership of the RSS 2.0 spec to Harvard University's Berkman Center for the Internet & Society.  RSS 2.0 spec was proclaimed to be "frozen", but is still being updated.  Very popular, de facto web feed format.  Atom  File extension:.atom,.xml  MIME type: application/atom+xml  History and Specification:  In 2003, people were unable to make changes directly to RSS 2.0 because it was copyrighted by Harvard University and "frozen" by the official specification document, which stated that "no significant changes can be made and it is intended that future work be done under a different name".  In June 2004, Atompub working group of IETF was set up.  In 2005, Atom 1.0 was published and Atom Syndication Format was issued as a proposed "internet official protocol standard" in IETF RFC  Not widely supported yet.

RSS  Sample RSS 2.0 File Format NYT > Technology en-us Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company Fri, 30 Mar :05:01 EDT NYT > Technology Stockholders Oust Chief at Take-Two The video game maker faced an insurrection from from shareholders that claimed the jobs of the chief executive and three directors. JEREMY W. PETERS Thu, 29 Mar :25:17 EDT

Atom  Sample Atom File Format Example Feed A subtitle T18:30:02Z John Doe urn:uuid:60a76c80-d399-11d9-b91C e0af6 Atom-Powered Robots Run Amok urn:uuid:1225c695-cfb8-4ebb-aaaa-80da344efa6a T18:30:02Z Some text.

Feed Reader  Feed reader: a program to aggregate web feeds on behalf of users and display updated feed content.  Desktop feed reader is normally designed as standalone program or as extension to existing programs like web browsers.  Web-based feed reader runs on web server and does not require software installation on user’s machine. Web server aggregates web feeds and display the updated content to user’s standard web browser.

Desktop Feed Reader - Standalone

Desktop Feed Reader - Embedded

Web-based Feed Reader

Summary  Web Syndication, especially in RSS and Atom web feed format, helps web users to aggregate and read information more efficiently.  Desktop and web-based feed readers are being developed enthusiastically. Web users will be benefited from the coming new features.

Thank You  Leon Wu  Department of Computer Science  Columbia University  Tel: (646) 