History of Web Syndication Technology

Here's a Wikipedia article on
the history of web syndication
technology:

History of web syndication technology

This article gives the history
of web syndication technologies
leading up to RSS 2.0 and
Atom and beyond.

Sometimes it helps to know the
history.

More to Web Syndication
Than Meets the Eye

One of the things I find interesting
about web syndication is that it is
one of those technologies where there
is more here than meets the eye.

There are usually two qualities that
make a technology one that has more to
it than meets the eye:

1. It is simple
2. It has broad implications

Web syndication seems to have both
of these qualities.

The idea that you are going to summarize
what you've published on your website
or blog is a simple one.

Basically, you are sharing with the
world when you do this.

However, this idea also has broad
implications. There's so many different
directions you can go with it.

I Love Lucy

It reminds me of the story I once heard
about the I Love Lucy show.

Seems the network allowed the rights
for re-broadcast to the show to go to
Lucy and her husband Desi Arnaz on the
condition that they would pay for the
original broadcasts to be filmed out
of their own pocket.

The network saw little potential in the
re-broadcast rights, what we now call
syndication rights. That's how the story
goes.

Of course, we now know that these syndication
rights are where the real money is. Syndication—
a simple idea with broad implications.

Syndication of Web Properties

I suspect that syndication of web properties
may have some of the same implications. Right
now, web syndication is in its infancy just as
television syndication was in its infancy in
the 1950s and 1960s.

I once watched a television interview with a
hollywood producer who said something to this
effect, There's always too much money chasing
too little talent in Hollywood.

So it is on the web. On the web, there is always
too many web pages chasing way too little content.

This being the case, web syndication is important
because the one thing that people seem to lack on
their websites is actual content.

You could go blind, looking at some of these websites
that look so beautiful, but are so devoid of content.

Just as TV can be a vast wasteland at times, so it is
with the web. Syndication helps to distribute the
best content a little more evenly.

Ed Abbott