Google's New RSS and Atom Services

August 10th 2005

Google News is now offering a Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0) and Atom (ver. .3) News feed service. RSS is a XML-based document format that alerts Internet users to the latest articles. The News Feeds can be integrated into a browser or email program after the user installs the reader. Both Atom and RSS provide a similar syndication format for XML feeds.

Google News compiles news stories from various news outlets and using an algorithm classifies and displays synopses on the Google website. The news format is customizable. For instance, if you have an interest in a particular Football team or medical condition, you can have the news sifted for those keywords. Topics are updated every fifteen minutes.

RSS is an extension of their news services and will be offered in six versions initially – US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and UK news. Google Syndication users are allowed to create their customized RSS / Atom News feeds, similar to the customized formats on their Google News Web page.

MSN has offered RSS feeds of its news service while Yahoo has offered its own personalized home page service. There have been other competitors with Yahoo and Google News including Topix.net , Moreover News, Technorati and Feedster.

According to Google this has been the most requesting news feature. Web Publishers will also be allowed to incorporate Google’s Syndication into their website. For more information on the Google News RSS and Atom Syndication visit this webpage: