Changes since the last version are:

• Run internal browser in restricted security zone in order to make IE responsible for blocking restricted content, instead of just doing so by parsing and stripping tags.
• Allow embedded CSS styles in item descriptions (was previously disabled because of javascript exploits that are now caught because of the security zone).
• Support both <commentRSS> as well as <commentRss> as there was some confusion as to the proper capitalization of this element.
• Fixed linebreak handling for some feeds.
• Improved handling of relative urls in atom feeds (like Sam Ruby's feed for instance).
• Now displaying enclosure links at the bottom of the item description.
• Fixed installer to no longer complain if only .NET 2.0 is installed.

There's empty <pubDate>s, javascript <link>s, unencoded HTML in the <description> that's not valid XML and therefore makes the entire document invalid, etc.

Quite frankly, coming from NASA, I found it somewhat amusing... I mean, it's not like this stuff is exactly rocket science, is it?

From their new TOS:

8. you will not use any robot, spider, scraper or other automated means to access the Site for any purpose without our express written permission.

for some reason they chose not to enforce this rule in their robots.txt though.

Oh, and if you, in an effort to stay fully compliant to their TOS, plan to just manually check their site instead, realize that registration is now required:

As a condition to using Services, you are required to register with Digg and select a password and screen name ("Digg User ID").

I guess slashdot doesn't have to worry about digg overtaking them anymore.

UPDATE: They changed their TOS to allow RSS aggregators to automatically access their site. Search engine spiders officially still need written permission though, and registration is still required for use of their "services" (where services are defined to, among other things, include text, images and articles).

RSS [...] is a technology that makes it easy to see updated headlines from websites or pages that you like. This year we have been working to incorporate this technology for members to utilize on eBay.

[...] eBay Stores sellers are now able to set up a "feed" that will send out a regularly updated summary of the most recently-listed items in their Store to people who subscribe to it. [...]

If you're a Store owner who is interested in providing listings via RSS feeds, go to "Manage My Store > Listing Feeds (within Store Marketing)". Click on "Distribute your listings via RSS" and click "Apply". The RSS button should appear on the lower left hand side of your Store.

[...]

We are working to add RSS to other areas as well in the coming months, so stay tuned.

Let me get this straight - they've been working for 10 months on the ability to generate a (really) simple xml file for a store, and they didn't even get around to allowing people to subscribe to search results?

Though I can see some people might be interested in subscribing to an individual store, I think subscribing to search results is way more interesting. If I'm for instance looking to buy a used iPod, I could subscribe to a feed for some ebay electronics store, but I'd much rather subscribe to a search-feed for "iPod" and get results for all stores, as well as for individual sellers.

He said they're "working to add RSS to other areas as well in the coming months", so hopefully search is coming up too at some time, but given how long it took for them to implement it for stores, there's no telling how long this will take.

In the mean time though, there's always rssauction.com (or is it? it seems to be down at the moment).]]> RSS 2005-11-13T23:36:24-05:00 http://www.hutteman.com/weblog/2005/11/13-236.html#comments http://www.hutteman.com/weblog/2005/11/04-235.html The Microsoft RSS Blog just announced that Vista will only accept RSS feeds that are well-formed XML. I agree with Nick, who commented "This is the right thing to do, and I'm glad you're doing it - thanks". I'd like to add some emphasis to that statement though: "This is the right thing to do, and I'm glad you're doing... (225 words) 235@http://www.hutteman.com/weblog/ The Microsoft RSS Blog just announced that Vista will only accept RSS feeds that are well-formed XML.

I agree with Nick, who commented "This is the right thing to do, and I'm glad you're doing it - thanks". I'd like to add some emphasis to that statement though: "This is the right thing to do, and I'm glad you're doing it - thanks".

See, neither Nick's aggregator nor mine requires well-formed XML. This is because there are a lot of non-well-formed feeds out there, and the typical aggregator user doesn't care about XML specs, they just want to see the feed content. And if you're requiring well-formed XML, something as small as a single "&" in a single post will invalidate the entire feed, for as long as that post remains in the feed (which can be weeks depending on the update frequency of the feed).

Microsoft being more strict than us has the following positive results though:

• It will most likely reduce the number of invalid feeds out there, making it easier for everyone to parse feeds.
• Microsoft gets positive press for "doing the right thing".
• For those feeds that still break, it may be another reason for people to look for alternative aggregators that can read that feed they're interested in.