E-mail, browse, search, e-commerce, contextual advertising, blogging: these are the killer applications that have shaped the development of the Internet and propelled its exponential growth. Syndication is next.

On-line syndication generally (though not exclusively) means making data 'feeds' available from a Web site automatically every time content is updated - for example, with breaking news. News and Web log (blog) sites were the first to offer feeds, but increasingly many other types of information are syndicated. Podcasts are a well-known type of syndicated content, with the latest casts being automatically downloaded by special desktop software.


The Firefox browser was released at the end of last year with integral support for syndication. But the kill will be properly effected by Internet Explorer 7 (IE7), the beta version of which has just been issued.


Until recently, Web feeds could be read only with a dedicated desktop reader (often called an aggregator), via an e-mail or browser add-ons or using certain Web site pages that pulled feeds together.


This has been just too much trouble for most. Firefox and IE7 will popularise syndication and an explosion of ever more useful feeds will ensue. Both browsers automatically 'discover' feeds on Web pages. You then save the feeds as bookmarks. When you click on a bookmark, the live headlines from the feed are displayed. So you are constantly updated and can click directly through to the individual articles or items that interest you.


In short, syndication does away with all those trips to 'What's New' pages and, with luck, unwanted e-mail newsletters and announcements which lie unread in your inbox or are instantly consigned to the wastebasket. Firefox and IE7 put syndication on your desktop without any real effort.



Unlike all articles I have read on syndication, I have left mention of RSS till the end. RSS is the name collectively used for the family of XML formats used by Web feeds. Previously, you needed to look out for links with these labels or their associated little orange buttons - with Firefox and IE7 you need not worry.


Nick Holmes is a publishing consultant at Information for Lawyers and managing director of Infolaw. He blogs on legal information issues at binarylaw.co.uk. Next week: the top ten law firm uses for RSS