Microsoft's RSS Platform: The Why

Microsoft is hopping onto the RSS bandwagon for Longhorn. I must be missing something but why is this news? The only reason that I see it being news is that this is another example of Microsoft taking an open standard, and attempting an "embrace and extend" approach.

Here's a link to Joe Wilcox's article: http://www.microsoftmonitor.com/archives/008956.html

I expect RSS to be obviously integrated into the Longhorn user interface. Related, Microsoft has chucked a bunch of Longhorn features, making it hard for some folks to discern what difference the new Windows will have from XP. RSS as a platform gives Microsoft something concrete and positive to talk about Longhorn ...

I'm not getting it. The RSS technology isn't of interest. Watching Microsoft exhibit another predatory behavior is. I'm not sure why they would bother other than to distract from the parts that they yanked out of Longhorn.