I know these types of articles are not as popular as some others but I believe this is the most important feature that any website will have in 2007. The new products already released or being released this month have rich support for RSS (stands for really simple syndication) Microsoft Office 2007 (all versions), Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 2 (My Preference).
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RSS in Office 2007 – here
Click on the image for a wider view of RSS in action, information straight from the business2 website into my inbox. I do nmot have to download, as soon as a comment is made it goes directly into my inbox just like a normal email. Think about these as new listings on your website, the user does not have to be on your site to see new listings appear in their email inbox. In short you are not serving your vendors, or your company if your website is not RSS ready in the next 6 months!
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RSS in Internet Explorer 7– here
IE7 has added RSS support right in the web browser. Again, another improvement that have been in other browsers for a long time, but it’s good that now IE has it too. RSS isn’t treated lightly within IE7; in fact, Microsoft built an entire RSS reader and bundled it in with the browser. Now when you click on the RSS button, you’ll see a listing of the feeds provided by a given Web site. Click the feed you want, and IE7 displays the latest headlines and blurbs. Unlike IE6, the page is readable (no more XML gibberish), with links to subscribe and to update the current feed.
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RSS in Firefox– here
Firefox has had RSS as part of its browser for well over a year now and the new version is even sleeker. Firefox 2 gives you full control over Web feeds, showing you a preview and letting you choose how you want to subscribe. You can use a Firefox Live Bookmark, or a feed reader that you’ve installed on your computer.
If you download and install one of these products, try clicking on the orange RSS Icon or clicking here to subscribe to this site, this will give you a good idea of what to do with your own site.
4 Comments
Dave Platter
Peter, I agree wholeheartedly. The new operating system is going to cause a lot of readjusting.
I heard on the BBC digital planet podcast the other day that some experts think lots of people and companies will delay upgrading for this reason. Even so, one would have to respond to the changes in Vista. But I’m curious if you think widespread delay very likely.
dave
Paul Krayven
On Office
Office 2007 is great. I’ve been using it for the past year in pre-release form. RSS in Outlook is superior to Internet Explorers Implementation in my opinion, especially in my work as I spend the majority of my working day staring at outlook’s interface. Word and Excel are improved. Publisher is really just the same with a few more templates and I’m still trying to figure out where Infopath fits into the office family. I imagine it pairs brilliantly with wndows sharepoint services but havent had the time to take a look.
On Vista
Aside from the annoying security features in Vista, I’m yet to see what Vista offers the employees of the company I work for. I suspect I’ll be sticking with Windows XP for quite some time yet for my collegues. With the internet becoming a huge part of our working lives and many applications we now use being web based, do we really care if Windows has nice animated windows and a transparent interface? As long as my browser is good I am happy ! 🙂
Paul Krayven
On RSS
I agree with Peter on this. RSS in its current form and future incarnations will take over how we view media. I envisage RSS reading on our televisions and iPods. The simplicity and convenience of it is too great to ignore. I for one will ensure we have RSS on our own site in it’s next revision.
Dave Platter
(I work at realestate.com.au)
That’s interesting, Paul. Thanks for that feedback about Vista. I imagine a lot of people feel the way you do. Besides, from what I’ve read about its lack of drivers for common existing peripherals and the amount of RAM it devours, it sounds like it would be an expensive proposition to upgrade to.
I sent the below article to our help desk support people today, with my condolences. From the sound of it, as soon as people in our company start to install Vista, all h3ll is going to break loose.
http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/17992/page1/
All best.
dave