RSS auto-discovery is a success. In 24 hours, the entire weblogging community has coalesced around a good idea (originally proposed by Matt Griffith) and a good implementation (Matt’s, tweaked only slightly by me). The next release of MovableType, Radio, Manila, Drupal, and Blosxom will all include the LINK tag in the default templates. (Manila already generates it automatically and doesn’t require any further action by existing Manila users. Way to go, Dave!) Syndication and wire services like Syndic8, NewsIsFree, and Meerkat support it on all their news pages. Yesterday’s article, More on RSS auto-discovery, hit #1 on Daypop and #1 on Blogdex overnight. Thousands of weblogs now support the LINK tag, and even a few non-weblogs are jumping into the action.
Now we can start taking advantage of it. I and others have come up with bookmarklets to easily subscribe to sites. I’ve added RSS feed links to my backlinks. In email late last night, Dave said he was working on some ideas for Radio; I can’t wait to see them. If you have other ideas (with or without implementations), post them and link to this post, or email me.
Update: Radio now supports RSS auto-discovery. Last I heard, Morbus is debating whether to break his code freeze on Amphetadesk to include it in the upcoming release. Joe says Aggie RC3 supports it and will be released real soon now.
Sunday update: please note, the standard has changed slightly. If you implemented the old version, please read this and update your site and/or tool accordingly. (Don’t you love being an early adopter?)
