An open letter to Google
scripting.com
scripting.com
[Yes, I could google it myself :) -- but am also interested in various 2nd order issues (e.g. which is trending up/down, why does Winer not like PubSubHubBub) which would take more searching to learn.]
Dave made significant contributions to RSS, and I suspect that he's experiencing the motherly instinct to protect his baby. Note the phrasing of point #2, and how he refers back to it from point #15. He's underscoring how he's not in "competition" with Google. But that doesn't mean that his ego is completely decoupled from the success of RSS.
On the one hand, I abhor polling and usually love to see it removed where possible. On the other hand, I've never thought RSS was insufficiently realtime. I tend to flood myself with too many feeds, and then it becomes an issue of self-discipline to trim or ignore it.
Scroll down to the diagrams. RSSCloud is a "light ping" protocol and PubSubHubBub is a "fat ping" protocol.