A new protocol with a funny name, PubSubHubbub, is out in the wild, complete with a free-to-use implementation of the most difficult part, the hub itself. Instructions for use in wordpress are fairly straight forward.
So what does all this non-sense mean? If you happen to have a conforming RSS reader (like, say, Google Reader is now), or a service that understands this stuff (like, say, FriendFeed) then when a PubHubHubbub using website or feed updates, you can find out about it instantly, instead of having to poll for it. This means less network traffic and less work, with instantaneous updates. All the benefits of Twitter, LiveJournal, and Facebook, from the comfort of your own decentralized blogging engine.
Assuming I have all the bits in place. This should update my FriendFeed almost instantaneously. Let's see.
Update: It works!
