Dave: [Google] by taking control of the syndication format, and trying to eliminate RSS, they will control the whole blogging-syndication-search space. The whole thing. We're about to be assimilated, according to Google's plans. Remember the Browser Wars of the 90s? Just like that. Using incompatibility to force the users to go your way. It's disgusting, of course. But see it for what it is, not revenge, but a grab of power. Don't be evil? That's marketing hype.

...

The users now have enough data, and the tools to speak for themselves. That was the point of doing blogging software, so that we would never be held hostage to people who sit at the top of a pyramid and look down at us, their minions, and sigh when they have to kill our dreams. It doesn't have to happen.[Scripting News]

It's true, thanks to weblogs we are not forced to be silent anymore. But does this help?

I'm tempted to say that if Google decides so, this battle is already over and we have lost.

RSS aggregators makers will run and implement Atom support. They will probably struggle to keep up with the standard (Atom is at 0.3 level) but they simply cannot afford not to support it since they are all small guys and especially if Google is going to introduce a competing product.

Publishers of RSS content, small and big, will start supporting Atom, especially if there is going to be some kind of Google aggregator or service (which, at this point, will only support Atom).

Google is already controlling how we get to our html contents, it's controlling a significant part of on-line advertising, it's even collecting our profiles on Orkut... why shouldn't they control the whole syndication space?

This might be the ultimate Big Brother scenario, unless we collectively figure out what to do to prevent this (and maybe try to get some other big gorilla on the RSS wagon).