RSS or Atom

RSS is a family of XML formats used to describe news feeds, announce articles, blog updates, etc. Information from various sources can be collected, processed and presented to the user in a convenient way by special software aggregators.

Atom is a XML-based format used to aggregate information from websites in the first place. It is tailored to blogs, but it can be used in any other news and periodical publications on the Web. The protocol running above http and used to automate maintaining a blog is an important part of the specification.

What is better - RSS or Atom? Each user should decide it for himself. Google's choice is Atom, while Yahoo's is RSS. Dave Winer, one of the main RSS developers, suggests combining these two formats. On the other hand, Chris Pirillo, an expert of the RSS Resource website, thinks that the combination of these formats does not make sense because regular users are not interested in which format is better. They just need it that the aggregator supports all formats.

RSS is a more popular format than Atom and can completely satisfy any webmaster's needs. The well developed infrastructure (software, services, support forums, etc.) adds to the increase of RSS popularity. You will not miscalculate if you choose RSS. And in case you are going to create podcasts, RSS is just beyond competition.