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 |
