RSS – Crossing into the Mainstream
Posted on Nov 15, 2005 | Categories: Syndication | 2 Comments
Some time ago I created a weblog post where I was mentioning how RSS (Really Simple Syndication) was no longer meant just for webloggers. Back then you would have probably thought that RSS and web syndication had made some good progress into becoming mainstream. However, things may not have moved that quickly just yet. At least, that is the initial impression you would get after you take a look into the following white paper: RSS — Crossing into the Mainstream, available over Joshua Grossnickle’s weblog.
Indeed, it looks like although a very useful technology to keep up to date with multiple web resources it still needs to catch up further with the big majority of Internet users. Here you have got a screen shot with some of its key findings:
As you can see from there it looks like we still have got plenty of ground to cover but one thing that would seem to be a key success factor would be the simplicity and ease of use of the technology to make it through into the mainstream. Most end-users would not really be bothered about wanting to use RSS feeds in order to have access to the information. What they would certainly like to have is a simple way of keeping up to date with their favourite resources and all of that from a single point of entry. And that is mainly what web syndication should be about. Just access to information. Pure and simple. And forget about all the different complexities. Thus it would be interesting to see how things would develop further into facilitating the faster adoption of syndication for Web resources.
Either way a very interesting read that I highly recommend to all those folks who may want to have a look into what is happening around the world of RSS. You can download the white paper from the following URL: RSS — Crossing into the Mainstream.
Technorati Tags : RSS, Web+Syndication, Ipsos+Insight
Blog Software Smackdown : The Big 3 Reviewed
Posted on Nov 15, 2005 | Categories: Metablogging | 1 Comment
As weblogging becomes more and more popular by the day and as it starts grabbing some more focus and attention from the non-techie communities out there who see this relatively new medium as a new way of sharing knowledge and information with one another where content is published and commented on right away and without any further content editor approvals of any kind, one always starts to wonder what are the options out there to start publishing your content in a weblog with the least effort possible.
It is not the first time, nor the last, I am sure, that folks ask me for some advice as to what weblogging platform they could go for and venture themselves into giving it a try. Obviously, ease of use, reliability, scalability, maintenance and a few other capabilities are put together into a single thought when providing that advice and so far to me the winner weblogging service is WordPress as most of you can see from my weblog. Not only because of the fact that it is Open Source, but also because of its great support capabilities, its ease of use in the installation and maintenance but also for the good amount of customisation you can do to make the weblog match your needs and requirements.
However, I can imagine how this weblogging platform may not be everybody’s favourite so whenever somebody asks me about which option they could use I always refer them back to the table hosted under Blog Software Comparison Chart, where you can see an extensive comparison document of the most popular weblogging platforms at the moment, along with a comprehensive list of features that every weblogger should be aware of. Certainly, after going through that table you would be able to have a very good idea of where you are and where you may be going in the end.
But if that is not enough, and if you would want to have a look a bit more in detail to three of the most popular weblogging services potentially self-hosted at your own server, I would suggest you also have a look into Blog Software Smackdown : The Big 3 Reviewed as you will be able to get some really good input from Vinnie Garcia on Movable Type, WordPress and Textpattern. Then after you are done with all that reading I bet you would be in a much better position to make a good choice for your own weblog. And from there onwards time to get busy and get started with it ! Let’s go !
Technorati Tags : Metablogging, WordPress, Movable+Type, Textpattern
(Update): Whoops! I forgot to include a very handy table from the same article that compares the main three weblogging services against a common set of features and all of that put together in a rating from 1 to 5, 5 being the highest score. This picture will give you a quick idea about which one of the three you may want to consider worth while looking into and adopting it at some point in time. So here it goes:
