Pre-RSS Formats
Before RSS, several similar formats already existed for syndication, but none achieved widespread popularity or are still in common use today, as most were envisioned to work only with a single service. These originated from push and pull technologies. Two of the earliest examples are Backweb and Pointcast.
Between 1995 and 1997, Ramanathan V. Guha and others at Apple's Advanced Technology Group developed the Meta Content Framework (MCF). MCF was a specification for structuring metadata information about web sites and other data, and the basis of Project X (aka Hot Sauce), a 3D flythrough visualizer for the web. When the research project was discontinued, Guha left Apple for Netscape.
Guha joined Netscape in 1997 and, after meeting XML co-creator Tim Bray, decided to turn MCF into an XML application. Guha and Bray jointly adapted MCF to use XML and submitted a specification to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in June 1997. This combination of MCF with XML later gave rise to the Resource Description Framework (RDF). (Tim Bray's own account of this work gives generous credit to Guha.)
In March 1997, Microsoft submitted a detailed specification for CDF to the W3C. This format was designed for the Active Channel feature of Internet Explorer 4.0. CDF never became popular, perhaps because of the extensive resources it required at a time when people were mostly on dial-up. Backweb and Pointcast were geared towards news, much like a personal application programming interface (API) feed. Backweb later morphed into providing software updates, a precursor to the push update features used by various companies now.
In September 1997, Netscape previewed a new, competing technology "Aurora," said to be based on RDF, which CNET.com stated was based on XML. A slightly later CNET article describes the October 1997, submission to W3C of a draft for RDF, by a working group that included members from many different companies, including R.V. Guha of Netscape.
In December 1997, Dave Winer designed his own XML syndication format for use on his Scripting News weblog.
Read more about this topic: History Of Web Syndication Technology