Lately, the blogosphere has been echoing with questions over the possibility of a trend that could suggest that RSS is gradually empowering the back-end (server systems) just as well as the front-end (client news readers).

RSS adds tremendous value to the underling information by structuring it in a simple and easily usable format, and I suspect that this trend may just be an indication of the widespread adoption of RSS for server-side applications in the near future. RSS as a standardized content delivery mechanism for interoperability between systems is growing.

Dave Winer, who pioneered the development of blogs and syndication (RSS), recently suggested that RSS is how the news flows:

If all the RSS on the planet were all of a sudden to stop updating (key point) the news would stop flowing. Any news guy or gal who thinks they could get by without RSS — think this through a bit more. We all love the Internet, but don’t shut off your gas and electric because your computer and router wouldn’t work without electricity. Same with RSS and news. RSS is how the news flows, whether you see it or not.

Marshall Kirkpatrick, a lead writer at ReadWriteWeb.com – one of the most widely read technology blogs online, contemplates that if you think RSS is dead then that’s your loss and it’s a big one:

Our team scans over thousands of company RSS feeds each morning for updates (what news writer wouldn’t do that?) and we use an open source customizable meme-tracker to make sure we haven’t missed anything important. We use open source RSS parsing software to set up a dashboard tracking all our competitors’ feeds, we use an RSS to IM alert system to get some feeds sent to us right away and at least some of us use Gmail Webclips for another layer of ambient feed tracking.

In other words, I use RSS all day long. Anyone who is competitive in their field and doesn’t just might be crazy.

The fact is clear, RSS is the backbone of content distribution online.