Chapter 93: Before RSS and Atom — How 1995–1998 Web Scripting Turned “Pages” Into Syndication APIs
RSS (late 1990s) and Atom (later) are often remembered as “blogging features,” but their real legacy is API-shaped: a stable URL that returns structured, machine-readable updates. This chapter traces how 1995–1998 browser scripting, CGI, and form-driven web apps created the practical and cultural prerequisites for syndication APIs.