Web 2.0 Stores > Fast, Simple, Search Engine Friendly Ecommerce

The birth of Web 2.0 has brought about several RSS 2.0 services and applications that are currently available to users interested in unique RSS feed services and features related to Web 2.0. The following list describes and links to many of the popular RSS 2.0 services.

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Visible.net is a new provider of state-of-the-art ecommerce and online marketing services.

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Google this week announced the release of the Google AJAX Feed API. What is it? It’s a JavaScript library that lets you mashup RSS and Atom feeds entirely on the client, thus no need for server-side coding. In addition, one of the useful core features is that it can automatically map XML attributes to a JSON result format. To get a sense of what it can do, one of their example mashups has been added to our listings: the Google AJAX Tune Bar that lets you add iTunes RSS feeds to any page. If you’re familiar with JavaScript programming you’ll note that typically this sort of client-side mashup would have some limitations due to browser security constraints restricting data to only come from the same server a given page was delivered. But Google works-around this by having their servers act as a proxy cache for all feed requests made via the API. Which leads to a couple of other implications: “The AJAX Feed API, like Google Reader and the Google personalized homepage, caches individual entries within feeds and reconstructs feeds based on those entries. Consequently, feeds from the AJAX Feed API may not reflect the exact XML file from the URL you request. In many cases, you can request more entries from the AJAX Feed API than are currently available in the live feed.” It is also interesting that we’re seeing more JavaScript-based APIs from Google, including the AJAX Search API and the ever-popular Google Maps API. We’ll probably see more in the future given that they’ve introduced a new base url of google.com/jsapi and a generalized JavaScript API load process: “Loading the API requires two steps because Google is moving to a new model of loading AJAX APIs to make it easier to include multiple Google APIs on your pages. Subscribe to the Google AJAX APIs Blog for announcements as we start rolling out this new AJAX API loading mechanism.” This is one of those very useful but somewhat subtle APIs that has more power than may be initially apparent.

The initial Google Reader launched to mixed reviews. Google has learnt from some of the critisism and has launched a new beta that has many changes:

• Expanded view and list view
• Simplified sharing functionality
• Improved read-state management
• Infinite scrolling
• Unread counts
• Mark all as read
• and a bunch more…

The list view stands out, as it shows how Google Reader could merge with GMail in the future (Yahoo! Mail has integrated RSS already). This makes sense to me, as what is the difference between the two? Subscribing to an RSS feed is pretty similar to subscribing to a mailing list. Coverage:

• New-look Google Reader Is Stunning!
• Google Unveils Big RSS Reader Upgrade
• Google Reader steps it up with new version

Almost a year ago I did a quick post titled “Post full feeds. Please” - and I was serious. At the time (it really wasn’t that long ago but it seems like ages in the internet), about 60% of blogs were full feeds, and the number grew steadily. Now it seems we’re getting back to summaries everywhere (much due to the advent of ads in blogs), and that feels like regressing. Here’s why. My process with RSS feeds is as follows:

• I don’t have much time, thus
• I don’t read all posts on all the blogs I subscribe to.
• I scan my news reader for things I care about and read them
• If I have something to say, I click through to the page and comment
• Whenever I see summaries, I think “no time to click all stories to figure out if I care, so I unsubscribe”
• I click the “unsubscribe” button

Some people have time to spend reading whole posts - most people don’t. And most people don’t care about most posts anyway, meaning the overall satisfaction resulting in clicking through every single post to get one important piece of information is extremely low. And like most people, I choose not to be unsatisfied. We’re at a time when information overload is at its peak. RSS is being used by millions of people because it makes sense - it relieves us from having to visit every single site we care about to get the news we want. If it doesn’t do that properly and publishers don’t understand our needs as users, we don’t need to stick around. We can move to people who get it. Right?