Abstract (verbatim from actual
patent filing):
Techniques for presenting and managing
syndication XML (feeds) are disclosed. In one embodiment, a user
can modify how a feed is displayed, such as which content (and how
much) is displayed, in what order, and how it is formatted. In
another embodiment, a modification regarding how a feed is
displayed is stored so that it can be used again at a later time.
In yet another embodiment, a user can create a custom feed through
aggregation and/or filtering of existing feeds. Aggregation
includes, for example, merging the articles of multiple feeds to
form a new feed. Filtering includes, for example, selecting a
subset of articles of a feed based on whether they satisfy a search
query. In yet another embodiment, a user can find articles by
entering a search query into a search engine that searches feeds,
which will identify one or more articles that satisfy the
query.
Clearly Apple don't seem to understand the world of XML, so let
me give them a quick recap:
1. XML enables separation of Data and
Formating
2. It facilitates Data
Representation, Transformation (XSLT), Exchange (syndication and
subscription), and Modeling (languages, protocols, data models,
amongst other things)
3. It is inherently open
4. You can't patent its essence
through the back door!
The Blogosphere is a Galaxy within Cyberspace comprised of Solar
systems of Blogs that revolve around X-list bloggers, Topics, or
more recently Tags; through the gravitational pull of links to RSS
(today), Atom (in due course), and RDF (the future).
Unfortunately, Apple (a major late-comer to RSS) doesn't seem to
understand that "RSS content search, aggregation and
transformation" is practically the same thing as "XML search,
aggregation and transformation". Subject matter covered extensively
by XML based languages such as XSLT, XPath, XPointer, and
XQuery.
Without XML there would be no RSS (as we know it today), and
without RSS there would be no Blogosphere.
Repurposing Blogosphere content isn't a novel invention at all.
Therefore, filing a patent along such lines is simply uncool by
Apple's standards (like the inextricable binding of iWeb to .mac
that was touted as innovative and open).
Final note: this blog is driven by a database engine that has
understood XML for a long time. This blog has been my live demo of
this fact since its inception. Here are a few things that it has
done for a very long time (talking prior art here):
- Repurpose content on the fly from
SQL and XML data sources to produce all the syndication and
subscription gems you see on the
Blog Home Page
- Offer a
search
feature that enables visitors to query blog archives using Free
Text, XQuery, XPath (all transformation technologies alongside
XSLT).