Dave Winer is calling out Google’s implementation of RSS/Atom usage in Gmail for trying to change the name:

First, why can’t they call it RSS. That’s what it’s called. Not good enough for Google. Gotta make it sound all weak and watery. Web clips. WTF is that? I don’t know. And I don’t want to know.

Curious what he was annoyed about, I did some clicking around. I found by looking at the new feature page it uses RSS on it the same number of times as “clips” (2) and when you click the Learn More link it has nine uses of the word “clips” and again two more uses of “RSS.”

So they chose to brand their implementation inside Gmail as “web clips” instead of calling them what …? RSS Clips? RSS feeds in Gmail? RSS Gmail Feeds? I don’t think they are doing this to disrespect RSS or Dave, but rather to promote it as a new feature. Which sounds more sexy? We’ve added RSS/Atom feed capability inside Gmail or we’ve added new web clips that can include RSS/Atom feeds? The latter piques my curiosity.

I can get with some of Winer’s rants, but this one just seems incredibly petty and self-serving. I might agree a little bit if they didn’t use the word RSS several times in their instructions, because that would confuse people, but inside their own application they can call a new feature whatever they want and why does it have to have the word “RSS” in it? Maybe I’m missing something in this part of Dave’s rant that actually makes sense? Anybody care to correct me here, I’m all ears/eyes?

So how are these Gmail clips, anyway?
To get to them, just click “settings” inside Gmail and then click on the new “Web Clips” tab. They preloaded the clips with 22 feeds of which I removed all but Reuters: Oddly Enough, Official Google Blog, The Motley Fool, Rotten Tomatoes: Movies and Funny Quote of the Day. The only blog beside Google’s that made the cut was Engadget, which I’m sure will make Jason Calacanis preen. They had the older Ask Yahoo! instead of Yahoo Answers.

To add your own custom feeds enter in the root domain (makeyougohmm.com or subdirectory example: tdavids.com/mac/ — pictured below) I found in the “Search by topic or url.” When I entered in the exact feed URL it couldn’t find the feed, but when I cut off the feed location it found it just fine.

After adding the feeds you will find a new blue strip in Gmail just above the Archve and Report Spam buttons. I don’t really care for the one line at a time way of reading RSS feeds. I’d rather look at 10-25 links or see it scroll automatically, but it’s not setup that way currently. An option? Also check this out:

They are mixing in sponsor results, yech!

My overall thoughts
Gmail Web Clips aren’t for me in their current incarnation, but not because it didn’t use RSS in the name, because of the blended sponsor results and the clumsy single line UI. What do you think? Grade: D

Update 11:45am PST: FranciscoIV writes: “Well i tried it, I didn’t like it, if it scrolled with all the feeds it would be better. I’m not going to sit there and click those arrows to get to the next feed…”

• Google inches closer to RSS
• Wednesday rumour: Google to release IM client
• Blending FeedBlendr and Alertbear shows common weakness
• The ‘RSS’, ‘Atom’, ‘XML’ display debacle
• Google Sidebar vs. Desktop Sidebar
• Atom 0.3 to RSS 1.0