Feeds as a platform + future of aggregators

Niall Kennedy is on a roll, having this week published an informative series of posts on the RSS platform and the ‘state of the aggregator’:

1. NewsGator API
2. Google Reader platform
3. Windows RSS Platform
4. Feeds as a platform
5. State of the aggregator

I don’t really have anything to add, being busy in the middle of other work right now. But I wanted to at least point to Niall’s posts, because it’s ‘must read’ material for anybody interested in RSS and microcontent aggregation. As he summarized in the State of the aggregator post:

“We have only just begun to explore the full possibilities of current feed technologies. Rich media enclosures, related content definitions, and well-defined author data open up new possibilities for user interaction and content discoverability. I believe most future uses of syndication technology will occur behind the scenes as a transport layer opening up a common XML parsing format to multiple applications and specialized uses. We’ve only just begun to change the world of publishing, customization, and personal empowerment.”

Go check it out… also Dare Obasanjo summarized a recent ETech presentation on the same themes.

Flickr pic by JoshB