In the face of sharp criticism Microsoft has defended its decision to rebrand RSS feeds in the new version of Internet Explorer, IE7. Opponents have claimed that the company is trying to 'reinvent the technology'. Microsoft claims however that they are merely adding additional functionality to the underlying RSS technology.

'Just because one team at Microsoft (in this case, the IE team) is grappling with the naming of a single feature in a single product (that does a lot more than just RSS), it doesn't automatically mean we are trying to "reinvent the technology",' MSN Spaces lead program manager Mike Torres wrote.