Bill (152.163.40.64) -

Now some "big names" I won't name are saying Atom is the way to go.

I disagree. The primary reason is SIMPLE.

It's called KISS -- Keep It SIMPLE Stupid!

Look up what RSS stands for if you don't remember, but the primary keyword that stands out is "SIMPLE". It's true too. RSS is simply simple!

That is clearly why it has gathered the audience and use it has.

Now atom is simply convoluted. It's too complicated. It makes a simple task more complicated that necessary (that would be in the creation or parsing of the feeds).

Big names aside the choice is simple:

KISS RSS

KILL ATOM

Comment #1 Bill (152.163.34.52) -

Another voice of reason...

"Well it has been a few months since someone got started on this debate again. It seems some engineer over at Amazon is saying Atom over RSS and he goes into quite a lengthy informative post about it, that makes a good read. But I'll be honest when was the last time you visited a website that only had a Atom feed on it versus a RSS?"...

• http://www.geeknewscentral.com/archives/006218.html

Comment #2 peeling from In front of my computer -

Well, since Google provides Atom feeds for blogspot, that effectively kills RSS. While the old RSS aggreagators are still sticking to it, I don't see a future for them, unless they switch over. If Google wants something, Google gets it.

Comment #3 Jimbo from San Francisco -

Google now provides RSS feeds on blogspot... which I guess means that they felt that there was a need for RSS.

Comment #4 peeling from In front of my computer -

They do, but I don't see them pushing it. In your blogspot, when you look for your feed, it says blahblah.blogspot.com/atom.xml. How many bloggers go and check for rss.xml, to see if it exists? The only reason I found out was because I wanted to submit my feed to a couple of places where they still don't accept atom feeds. So I did a search for "blogspot rss". BTW, I don't know if blogger beta supports RSS or not, since I'm not using it.

Comment #5 Jimbo from San Francisco -

Although they don't promote it much, the fact that Google added RSS clearly shows that Atom is NOT the winner in the battle.

For some reason Google has to have felt that there was a need to RSS.

That is of course a far cry from eliminating Atom, so I think both will be around for a long time.

Comment #6 sams from RSSWorld -

I agree with you, for now both Atom and RSS will be there unless some other better syndication process is developed. In my opinion that is not a far cry.

Comment #7 Gan Uesli Starling (69.51.152.43) -

The link is my own Atom feed, which was brain dead simple to create following a single example of someone else's own simple Atom feed.

The XSLT required to view it in a plain Jane browser is more complex than the feed itself.

Sure, there is complexity for those who need/desire it. But complexity is in no way required.

• Atom Feed

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