Microsoft: RSS Will Be Big in Longhorn

NowPublic Exclusive: Video of the announcement from Gnomdex.

This morning at the Gnomedex conference in Seattle, Microsoft is announcing that Longhorn, next year's big Windows upgrade, will incorporate RSS (Really Simple Syndication) as a core technology. RSS capability will be built into the OS, so that (for instance) you can have one set of newsfeed subscriptions show up in any Longhorn-aware newsreader or other application. Microsoft also says that Longhorn's RSS will make it easier for software developers to incorporate RSS-powered features into their programs without having to build the functionality from scratch.

The behemoth of Redmond is also saying it's working on something called Simple List Extensions, an RSS enhancement which will let RSS wrangle ordered lists of content, such as playlists and photo albums. Microsoft will make these extensions available through a Creative Commons license, which means that other developers can incorporate them into their services and software products.