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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?

The picture above is the RSS feed of Yahoo’s new movie releases. RSS, or real simple syndication, is a great way to monitor massive amount of information. Every morning I check roughly 50 different blogs and news sites to see if anything important has developed in the world of eCommerce. Clicking through to each site would take hours, so I use an RSS reader to check which sites have updated their content and to read articles. Basically, RSS is a great way to keep informed of changes in the content of a site.

However, only 5% of American adults use RSS right now and 88% of at work Americans don’t even know what RSS is. (If this includes you, just click on the first link of this article to find out) Why am I suggesting its use then? First let’s look at an example of an RSS feed one of our clients, Spark Fun Electronics, uses. This is the news section on their homepage:

This is what their RSS feed looks like:

While their RSS feed doesn’t include pictures, this can be accomplished. It is the ability to quickly scan articles that makes RSS such a time saver. Now, back to those statistics. Most Americans started using email because it was included with AOL and was easily learned. I firmly believe RSS will experience the same adoption rate when the world’s most popular web browser, Internet Explorer, is updated with an included RSS reader. The new version should do for RSS what AOL did for email. Is your site ready?