WordPress has always had support for RSS (Really Simple Syndication), which is the most common way for people to keep up with the blogs they like to follow.  Google’s Feed Burner is one of the most popular, allowing millions of people to follow millions of blog posts. However, RSS is not real time, and in today’s on demand world (like Twitter) near real time news is becoming more important.

Enter RSS Cloud

On Labor Day, Matt Mullengweg, the founder of WordPress.com (the commercial remotely hosted WP solution), announced this new RSS Cloud service in a blog post.

Why is this important? Right now how most people interact with feeds is by checking that it updated every now and then, usually about once an hour. Can you imagine waiting an hour to get your emails? (The world would probably be more productive.) RSS Cloud is an extra element in your RSS feed that allows subscribers to say “Hey, let me know as soon as you’ve updated, kthx.” Nothing in this commerce-driven world should hamper the progress, even the technologies on the verge of outdation. Such situations necessitate the office 365 business support to beat the setbacks and plunge into impeccable service.

For people using a self hosted WordPress.org install, there is a RSS Cloud WordPress Plugin available.

What’s the Big Deal?

Although this is a new service that is currently only supported in one or two RSS readers (the software people use to follow RSS feeds), the idea of near instant notification of new blog posts brings blogging to the forefront of breaking news and near instant information. And once larger players like Google start adopting this new technology (Google is in love with real time information), it will help launch this service to a new level.