Microsoft Corp. announced support for RSS in the next version of the Microsoft Windows operating system, code-named “Longhorn.” The RSS functionality in Longhorn is being designed to make it simple for end users to discover, view and subscribe to RSS feeds, as well as make it easier for developers to incorporate the rich capabilities of RSS into their applications. In addition, Microsoft announced Simple List Extensions, a set of extensions to RSS that can be used to enable Web sites to publish lists as RSS feeds. Microsoft is making the specification and the Simple List Extensions freely available via the Creative Commons license, the same license under which the RSS 2.0 specification was released. While browsing the Web, Longhorn users will be able to discover RSS feeds through an illuminated icon, as well as read the feed while still in the Web browser. In addition, users will be able to subscribe to an RSS feed as simply as adding a Web site to their “favorites.” The RSS features in Longhorn also will enable application developers to harness the capabilities of RSS in their applications. For example, business users about to attend a conference could subscribe to the conference’s event calendar. They can then use a Longhorn RSS-enabled calendar application to view the events in the RSS feed from within their calendar application. The RSS support in Longhorn includes a Common RSS Feed List, Common RSS Data Store, and an RSS Platform Sync Engine. http://www.microsoft.com