layout: post title: RSS is mainly client-side? created: 1059764220 categories:

• Web Development

Steve Gillmor describes Jonathan Angel's thoughts about the evolution of client applications that use the Internet:

In short, RSS can make plenty of use, ultimately, of the fat clients that Microsoft and Intel want to sell us anyway, and it probably argues for the acquisition of a pretty capable PC, not an information appliance.

I don't agree that RSS is client-side. I started out by using NetNewsWire -- and it is a great app -- but found that Drupal met my needs better. So, all the aggregation is done on the server, and the browser is my client. I don't need a fat client. Sure, Drupal is probably too difficult for the average end-user to set up, but this very thing is being mitigated by TypePad et al. And blogging from your smartphone/handheld (a.k.a. "moblogging") is going to argue even more for moving all those RSS aggregation etc. abilities onto a server.

Having all the stuff that gets aggregated cached/stored locally just doesn't seem like a good idea. Ultimately, that information lives out on the Internet -- it changes, it grows, it gets comment'ed and trackback'ed.