An Early Peek at Microsoft's RSS Strategy

Microsoft is showing off Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 at Gnomedex, with an emphasis on its RSS capabilities. Despite several observers being underwhelmed by the actual deliverables, Dave Winer had an interesting insight into Microsoft's strategy:

"...There were applications of RSS that aren't about news. Like Audible's NY Times Best Seller list, or an iTunes music playlist, or lists of Sharepoint documents, or browser bookmarks. Lists are all over the place, and people are starting to move them around via RSS, and they are not the usual kind of data that has been carried by RSS in the past."

Techies know list support has been long established through standards like OPML. Microsoft's implementation of an API (application program interface) to enable RSS on all sorts of applications across a multitude of devices, mobile or otherwise, as well as its support for enclosures (click on a list item, read the article or watch the video) is a prerequisite for making lists really useful.

There's the table of contents in the latest issue of Lucky magazine. There's the store directory at the local mall. There's the list of all of your best friends that you share your life's experiences with. All of these lists, if synched up properly, aren't going to change the world in the way Google did. However, they just might help you find something cool at the store that you want to share with your friends.

In a media-obsessed world like ours, that one thing may be more than enough.