Idolator moves forward with XML-driven blogging technology

On Tuesday, November 10th, 2009, Pop culture blog Idolator has changed formats from human to a data driven format, sources say. Founding editor and writer Maura Johnston gave her goodbyes the previous day as the last biological entity maintaining the web site's helm, making way for an automated way of keeping the public abuzz with pop!

"XML was [Idolator's parent company's] choice of protocol", says Kip Skeema, a technological insider based in the Jersey City, New Jersey area. "Rich client experiences demand rich services. [In our] fast past world today, where Web 2.0 is even showing its wear and tear, blogging must evolve past manual resources." Skeema's praise of the XML format for Idolator's new format brought cheers from his peers, notably those who are part of W3C, a.k.a. The World Wide Web Consortium -- who has played a major hand in formalizing the XML format.

"I used to run into bottlenecks with most pop culture blogs," says Rigina Skuff, a Publicity Relations manager for a label she would not name. "I still have problems, but Idolator has just opened a new portal to allow me to get my work done. Now they make things so easy! I just upload my XML file to their secure page for contributors, and once my file is validated, Idolator posts a clean, well formated, and objective entry about my story within hours of my submission. I love it." Skuff plans to tell all of her colleagues about this new revelation.

Skuff continues, "If there's one thing that PR workers love about the pop culture industry, it's process and integrity. We would never want to present anything we do as greater than another's sweat and tears. Hype is not our game -- certainly not the type of hype that generates hurt."

However, when both Skuff and Skeema were each asked about their favorite new feature about the new Idolator, they both agreed on the automated author field. "The World Wide Web is open to more humans than ever possibly imagined," says Skeema. "People regularly chat with each other using goofy nicknames rather than formal first-last name business chit-chat -- which is frankly boring. A load is taken off my mind when I read a story and it's written by 'Robbie' or 'Chrissy', not some two word ball-and-chain." Skuff loves author Robbie in particular. "He sounds -- well -- he sounds like a guy I would flirt with at a bar," she giggles. "I know this sounds silly and too fun to be true, but this is the type of enjoyment data-driven journalism will give us, and I've practically waited my whole life to squeeze a little more enjoyment out of my day job -- especially in these trying times."