Web syndication technologies were preceded by metadata standards such as the Meta Content Framework (MCF) and the Resource Description Framework (RDF), as well as by push specifications such as the Channel Definition Format (CDF). Early web syndication standards included the Information and Content Exchange (ICE) and RSS. More recent specifications include Atom and GData.
Predecessors Web syndication specifications were preceded by several formats in push and metadata technologies, few of which achieved widespread popularity. Many, such as Backweb and Pointcast, were intended to work only with a single service. Between 1995 and 1997, Ramanathan V. Guha and others at Apple Computer's Advanced Technology Group developed the Meta Content Framework (MCF). MCF was a specification for structuring metadata information about web sites and other data, implemented in HotSauce, a 3D flythrough visualizer for the web. When the research project was discontinued in 1997, Guha left Apple for Netscape. Guha and the XML co-creator Tim Bray extended MCF into an XML application that Netscape submitted to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) as a proposed web standard in June 1997. This submission contributed towards the emergence of the Resource Description Framework (RDF). In March 1997, Microsoft submitted a detailed specification for the 'push' technology Channel Definition Format (CDF) to the W3C. This format was designed for the Active Channel feature of Internet Explorer 4.0. CDF never became popular, perhaps because of the extensive resources it required at a time when people were mostly on dial-up. Backweb and Pointcast were geared towards news, much like a personal application programming interface (API) feed. Backweb later morphed into providing software updates, a precursor to the push update features used by various companies now. In September 1997, Netscape previewed a new, competing technology named "Aurora," based on RDF, a metadata model whose first public working draft would be posted the next month by a W3C working group that included representatives of many companies, including R.V. Guha of Netscape. In December 1997, Dave Winer designed his own XML format for use on his Scripting News weblog.
Early web syndication: ICE and RSS The first standard created specifically for web syndication was Information and Content Exchange (ICE), which was proposed by Firefly Networks and Vignette in January 1998. The ICE Authoring Group included Microsoft, Adobe, Sun, CNET, National Semiconductor, Tribune Media Services, Ziff Davis and Reuters, amongst others, and was limited to thirteen companies. The ICE advisory council included nearly a hundred members. ICE was submitted to the World Wide Web Consortium standards body on 26 October 1998, and showcased in a press event the day after. The standard failed to benefit from the open-source implementation that W3C XML specifications often received. RDF Site Summary, the first web syndication format to be called "RSS", was offered by Netscape in March 1999 for use on the My Netscape portal. This version became known as RSS 0.9. In July 1999, responding to comments and suggestions, Dan Libby produced a prototype tentatively named RSS 0.91 (RSS standing for Rich Site Summary at that time), that simplified the format and incorporated parts of Winer's scripting news format. This they considered an interim measure, with Libby suggesting an RSS 1.0-like format through the so-called Futures Document. In April 2001, in the midst of AOL's acquisition and subsequent restructuring of Netscape properties, a re-design of the My Netscape portal removed RSS/XML support. The RSS 0.91 DTD was removed during this re-design, but in response to feedback, Dan Libby was able to restore the DTD, but not the RSS validator previously in place. In response to comments within the RSS community at the time, Lars Marius Garshol, to whom authorship of the original 0.9 DTD is sometimes attributed, commented, "What I don't understand is all this fuss over Netscape removing the DTD. A well-designed RSS tool, whether it validates or not, would not use the DTD at Netscape's site in any case. There are several mechanisms which can be used to control the dereferencing of references from XML documents to their DTDs. These should be used. If not the result will be as described in the article." Effectively, this left the format without an owner, just as it was becoming widely used.
Initial adoption of RSS (2000–2003) A working group and mailing list, RSS-DEV, was set up by various users and XML notables to continue its development. At the same time, Winer unilaterally posted a modified version of the RSS 0.91 specification to the Userland website, since it was already in use in their products. He claimed the RSS 0.91 specification was the property of his company, UserLand Software. Since neither side had any official claim on the name or the format, arguments raged whenever either side claimed RSS as its own, creating what became known as the RSS fork. The RSS-DEV group went on to produce RSS 1.0 in December 2000. Like RSS 0.9 (but not 0.91) this was based on the RDF specifications, but was more modular, with many of the terms coming from standard metadata vocabularies such as Dublin Core. Nineteen days later, Winer released by himself RSS 0.92, a minor and supposedly compatible set of changes to RSS 0.91 based on the same proposal. In April 2001, he published a draft of RSS 0.93 which was almost identical to 0.92. A draft RSS 0.94 surfaced in August, reverting the changes made in 0.93, and adding a type attribute to the description element. In September 2002, Winer released a final successor to RSS 0.92, known as RSS 2.0 and emphasizing "Really Simple Syndication" as the meaning of the three-letter abbreviation. The RSS 2.0 spec removed the type attribute added in RSS 0.94 and allowed people to add extension elements using XML namespaces. Several versions of RSS 2.0 were released, but the version number of the document model was not changed. In November 2002, The New York Times began offering its readers the ability to subscribe to RSS news feeds related to various topics. In January 2003, Winer called the New York Times' adoption of RSS the "tipping point" in driving the RSS format's becoming a de facto standard. In July 2003, Winer and Userland Software assigned ownership of the RSS 2.0 specification to his then workplace, Harvard's Berkman Center for the Internet & Society.
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