Until recently I wasn't aware of how long rssCloud has been around – the <cloud> element has been in the RSS 2.0 spec since 2001!
I know right?!
I was thinking a while back that there needed to be more rssCloud servers in the wild but then discovered that it's been enabled for all wordpress.com blogs since 2009. There's also a plugin for the self hosted flavour.
So, there are, in effect, millions of rssCloud 'servers' out there just not dedicated, independently hosted ones.
WebSub (originally PubSubHubbub or PuSH) became more popular and, despite the WordPress intervention, rssCloud lives on in relative obscurity. If it's not for the lack of 'servers' it can only be for the lack of readers or aggregators that support it.
Why is that?
rssCloud has been criticised for its approach. WebSub can use 'fat pings' where the new content is included with the notification (although not a requirement) whereas rssCloud notifications may lead to a sudden influx in traffic as any consuming readers all hit the source for updates at the same time. Unintentional DDoS anyone? rssCloud is, however, considerably easier to implement.
Is it simply the 'thin ping' issue that prevents wider adoption? Is it just not sexy enough? Do people not want/need instant updates in there readers?
When I built /reader I knew I wanted to support it and it's the basis of what Andy and I have been doing with 'My Status Tool'.
RSS is such a mature offering that can have far wider applications than just blogs and podcasting. The idea of using it (and rssCloud) as the delivery mechanism for a small Twitter-like network has (I discovered) been around since 2009, proposed by none other than Dave Winer. Why has it taken 14 years to revisit?
It's obvious that the rise of social networks killed (or at least hibernated) interest in a lot of the open web. It's only now after years of scandal and abuse and a certain billionaire buying Twitter that a lot of folks are again taking an interest.
It makes you wonder what could have been if the 'social years' hadn't happened. Have we really squandered over a decade only to realise that what we had before was actually pretty good? Or did we need the networks to generate ideas and demonstrate that these things could happen (and fail) at scale to learn some lessons we can reapply to 'the small web'?
