[@469]
SherlockRSS

While working on my Linkblog's Sherlock Channel, I realized that I would be extremely easy to hack together a RSS viewer in Sherlock. So I did.

Introducing…

Why wait for Safari RSS when Sherlock can do it today?

The good stuff…

Since Sherlock support subscribing to channels via a URL, anybody can instantly make use of SherlockRSS. For example, to view my feed, I would simply point to the following link:

sherlock://erik.thauvin.net/download/SherlockRSS/SherlockRSS.xml?
action=add&subscribe&query=http://feeds.thauvin.net/ethauvin

No installation required. Sherlock will do all the work. How's that for simple?

The source is open. Someone (with a lot of time to spare) could easily implement all kind of custom functionality.

The not so good stuff…

It is a quick hack. It only works with RSS, no RDF or Atom support. There is no ways to manage or store feeds. Etc., etc., etc…

Why? Oh Why?

I find it quite interesting that Apple would choose to only implement RSS support in Safari. Seems to me that the Sherlock channel subscription model is a perfect fit for content syndication. Why not simply let people subscribe to feeds via Safari, and use Sherlock as a viewer/manager?

Then again, Sherlock is probably one of the most interesting, yet under-utilized technology, Apple ever came up with.