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Much to the upset of users, Google's web log service chose to use the new Atom technology instead of the popular Really Simple Syndication, which is favored by many blog services including LiveJournal.

In 2003, Google took control of Blogger.com, an online journal service with over one million members worldwide. Just last month, the search engine began allowing its Blogger users to syndicate their web logs to other web sites using Atom services, causing an uproar in the web log community.

Since Atom's creation by RSS critics over the summer, a virtual war has broken out, dividing bloggers between RSS and Atom supporters. Critics are now accusing Google of adding fuel to this fire.

"Why would Blogger-Google do this?" Randy Charles Morin, creator of kbcafe.blog, wrote in his Real Geek's Blog. "Most every XML syndication tool supports RSS and more don't support Atom than do. Further, Atom isn't even stable and will change considerably before its final release."

Really Simple Syndication is popular among its users because it allows them to automatically get updates from their favorite websites. RSS, in all its power and simplicity, is the format favored by Microsoft and Yahoo, Google's leading competitors.

"Google dominates search the way Microsoft dominates operating systems," Dave Winer, an RSS leader, wrote in his Scripting.com blog. "In 2004, it's hard to say which dominance has more potential to do damage to competition."

Winer, who also claims it's impossible to trust Google, hopes "that the proponents of Atom will see the wisdom of not forking and building compatibly off the RSS base. And there's hope that users will act in their own interest."

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