Internet Alchemy Weblog

Internet Alchemy Second RSS Survey

Introduction

This survey was conducted in July 2000 and involved the fetching, parsing and analysis of 1810 RSS files listed in xmlTree.com's OCS feed.

These are the results of my second RSS survey, conducted today. It has more information than the previous survey and includes an analysis of the languages specified in the RSS files. The complete element distributions for both formats is also included. This shows evidence of some confusion between the formats with people including <rss> elements in their 0.90 files. Also there's evidence that some people are including html in their item titles and descriptions. There are also some people using <date> and <category> elements in their items.

Results

HTTP Response Codes

Status Code Number Percentage First Survey
200 1677 93% 93%
401 2 0.1% 0%
403 0 0% 0%
404 118 6.5% 5%
500 12 0.7% 2%
Other 1 0% 0%

Relative Distributions of RSS files

RSS Type Number Percentage First Survey Comparison
RSS 0.90 198 11% 50%
RSS 0.91 1439 80% 46%
Other/Non RSS 173 10% 4%

Parse Results

RSS Type Number unparseable Percentage unparseable First Survey Comparison
RSS 0.90 22 11% 6%
RSS 0.91 198 14% 6%

Element Usage

RSS Type Element name Number using Element Percentage using Element First Survey Comparison
RSS 0.90 Image 123 70% 90%
RSS 0.90 TextInput 11 6% 1%
RSS 0.91 Image 625 50% 82%
RSS 0.91 TextInput 108 1% 13%
RSS 0.91 Language 770 62% 95%
RSS 0.91 Rating 39 3% 5%
RSS 0.91 Copyright 124 10% 14%
RSS 0.91 Docs 5 0% 0%
RSS 0.91 ManagingEditor 141 11% 15%
RSS 0.91 LastBuildDate 35 0% 3%
RSS 0.91 Webmaster 152 12% 17%
RSS 0.91 SkipHours 4 0% 1%
RSS 0.91 SkipDays 3 0% 0%

Average number of Items per File

RSS Type Average No. of Items First Survey Comparison
RSS 0.90 7.5 9
RSS 0.91 7 12

Language Distributions (RSS 0.91 Only)

Language Number
no 1
sv 2
de 3
fr 2
en-us 617
en-gb 9
ja 1
en-ie 1
en-ca 5
en-au 3
en 122
cs 1

RSS 0.91 Element Distribution

RSS Type Element Number
RSS 0.90 channel 178
RSS 0.90 channel/copyright 1
RSS 0.90 channel/description 178
RSS 0.90 channel/language 1
RSS 0.90 channel/link 178
RSS 0.90 channel/title 178
RSS 0.90 image 123
RSS 0.90 image/link 123
RSS 0.90 image/title 122
RSS 0.90 image/url 123
RSS 0.90 item 1325
RSS 0.90 item/description 6
RSS 0.90 item/link 1323
RSS 0.90 item/title 1325
RSS 0.90 rss 2
RSS 0.90 /rdf:rdfchannel 2
RSS 0.90 /rdf:rdfchannel/description 2
RSS 0.90 /rdf:rdfchannel/link 2
RSS 0.90 /rdf:rdfchannel/title 2
RSS 0.90 /rdf:rdfimage 2
RSS 0.90 /rdf:rdfimage/link 2
RSS 0.90 /rdf:rdfimage/title 2
RSS 0.90 /rdf:rdfimage/url 2
RSS 0.90 /rdf:rdfitem 20
RSS 0.90 /rdf:rdfitem/link 20
RSS 0.90 /rdf:rdfitem/title 20
RSS 0.90 textinput 11
RSS 0.90 textinput/description 11
RSS 0.90 textinput/link 11
RSS 0.90 textinput/name 11
RSS 0.90 textinput/title 11
RSS 0.91 channel 1426
RSS 0.91 channel/BLOCKQUOTE 1
RSS 0.91 channel/BLOCKQUOTE/b 1
RSS 0.91 channel/BLOCKQUOTE/b/br 1
RSS 0.91 channel/copyright 124
RSS 0.91 channel/description 1422
RSS 0.91 channel/docs 5
RSS 0.91 channel/image 625
RSS 0.91 channel/image/description 530
RSS 0.91 channel/image/height 574
RSS 0.91 channel/image/link 623
RSS 0.91 channel/image/title 625
RSS 0.91 channel/image/url 625
RSS 0.91 channel/image/width 575
RSS 0.91 channel/item 8824
RSS 0.91 channel/item/category 63
RSS 0.91 channel/item/date 7
RSS 0.91 channel/item/decription 1
RSS 0.91 channel/item/description 7614
RSS 0.91 channel/item/description/a 3
RSS 0.91 channel/item/description/a/b 1
RSS 0.91 channel/item/description/code 2
RSS 0.91 channel/item/description/font 2
RSS 0.91 channel/item/description/p 1
RSS 0.91 channel/item/item 10
RSS 0.91 channel/item/item/description 5
RSS 0.91 channel/item/item/link 10
RSS 0.91 channel/item/item/title 10
RSS 0.91 channel/item/link 8802
RSS 0.91 channel/item/link/description 1
RSS 0.91 channel/item/link/link 1
RSS 0.91 channel/item/textinput 1
RSS 0.91 channel/item/textinput/description 1
RSS 0.91 channel/item/textinput/link 1
RSS 0.91 channel/item/textinput/name 1
RSS 0.91 channel/item/textinput/title 1
RSS 0.91 channel/item/title 8823
RSS 0.91 channel/item/title/a 4
RSS 0.91 channel/item/title/br 1
RSS 0.91 channel/item/title/i 1
RSS 0.91 channel/language 770
RSS 0.91 channel/lastBuildDate 35
RSS 0.91 channel/link 1422
RSS 0.91 channel/managingEditor 141
RSS 0.91 channel/pubDate 34
RSS 0.91 channel/rating 39
RSS 0.91 channel/skipDays 3
RSS 0.91 channel/skipDays/day 5
RSS 0.91 channel/skipHours 4
RSS 0.91 channel/skipHours/hour 23
RSS 0.91 channel/textinput 108
RSS 0.91 channel/textinput/description 107
RSS 0.91 channel/textinput/link 108
RSS 0.91 channel/textinput/name 108
RSS 0.91 channel/textinput/title 108
RSS 0.91 channel/title 1426
RSS 0.91 channel/webMaster 152
RSS 0.91 image 648
RSS 0.91 image/description 648
RSS 0.91 image/height 648
RSS 0.91 image/link 648
RSS 0.91 image/title 648
RSS 0.91 image/url 648
RSS 0.91 image/width 648
RSS 0.91 item 5342
RSS 0.91 item/description 14
RSS 0.91 item/link 5326
RSS 0.91 item/title 5342

navigation

home
subscribe
about
xLinkage
referers
prospecting
other news

microsites

OCS
RSS
FOAF
WAP
Usenet

colophon

Copyright 1999-2002 Ian Davis. My FOAF File
Powered by Moveable Type