o brave new world: RSS Directory

RSS Directory live on MSCOM

Fri, 05 May 2006 17:58:37 GMT

New RSS V-root Takes Root on MSCOM

The MSCOM Communities Team is pleased to announce the release of the Microsoft Feeds Directory. The bits officially went live on May 4, 2006; the directory can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/rss/default.aspx.

Features and Highlights

These are the major features of the Directory of Microsoft feeds, a central, dynamic RSS resource which includes:

Dynamically updated, categorized listing of a selection of feeds mainly on Microsoft domains.
MSN Search-based, multi-language keyword search for RSS feeds on Microsoft.com, gotdotnet.com, blogs.msdn.com, and blogs.technet.com
“Featured feeds” and recently added feeds home page featurettes, with master feeds that can be subscribed to.
IE7 tie-in: IE7 includes a default favorite that points to the directory and its “feed of feeds” (a collection of 100 of the recently added feeds in the directory).

Please feel free to offer feedback here, or directly in the directory itself using our feedback form: http://support.microsoft.com/gp/contactusfeedsdir?sd=gn

Directory Live on Our Labs Site

Fri, 21 Apr 2006 20:39:57 GMT

The Microsoft Communities Team is pleased to announce the release of our community technology preview (CTP), which offers a preview of the Microsoft Feeds Directory.

The bits officially went live on April 20, 2006 on the Community Labs cluster. The directory can be viewed at http://labs.communities.microsoft.com/rss/default.aspx

And we want feedback! Tell us what you like/don't like so we can work on improving this resource for visitors to MSCOM who want/need Microsoft RSS feeds. Either comment here or comment directly in the directory using the "Provide Feedback" link.

Note that this is a v1, so bells-and-whistles are few--nonetheless, we do want to make it easier to search for, browse, and subscribe to Microsoft RSS feeds with this central resource.

More to come.

dave

You'd Think an RSS Directory Would Be a Simple Matter...

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 15:50:16 GMT

But it's not...

Among many technical challenges we're facing in putting together our RSS directory are questions of security (that is, making sure that our feed emission system can't be hijacked); taxonomy (that is, the way feeds are classified within category lists such that they can also be effectively queried and used by misc. clients); usability/design (that is, how can we assure that customers get the best possible experience of the directory and feeds, one that is both consistent and simple, but at the same time offers rich enough features to encourage repeat usage?); etc., etc.

If it had been a simple matter, I guess, we would've published the thing months ago. But I suppose the things that are truly worth doing in life are those that pose a challenge... and that we have.

We're still shooting for an end-of-March release, whether to its permanent home on www.microsoft.com, or initially to our labs cluster (http://labs.communitiies.microsoft.com), and want to make sure that it delivers enough value to generate interest, comment, and hopefully even happy usage... But we do know that this is a project that will require continued investment for a while to come to make sure we get it right, and that will largely depend on the feedback we get and how well we can respond to it in a timely manner.

As always, your comments, remarks, questions, etc. welcome on our plans.

More later...

High Quality Images of Proposed RSS Directory

Tue, 07 Feb 2006 07:16:31 GMT

Ok, MSN Spaces photo albums are pretty limited when it comes to showing larger/detailed images, like screenshots and comps. Anyhow, here's a list you can look at and comment on in earnest:

Once I get a handle on hacks and so forth for Spaces, I hope to make this a bit easier for y'all.

Anyway: what do you think? For example, do you like the ide of being able to browse for registered feeds and search for all RSS feeds on MSCOM? Do you want to be able to build your own feeds? Tell me what works for you, what doesn't, and that will help us focus our first release here in the next few months.

dave