In its most basic sense, Extensible Markup Language (XML) is used for turning documents written by people into data that can be read by machines. A computer doesn’t know if you’re William Faulkner or a jilted teenager writing angry poetry after a break-up, but with XML, both of those documents can be read in the same way. The XML file type is now the default for many office-application suites, like Microsoft Office and Apple iWork. In addition, several new protocols make use of XML in unique and helpful ways.RSS (Really Simple Syndication) uses XML specifications to provide content to readers in a syndicated, automatically-updated manner. Blogs, news sites, and video sites are just a few of the web sites which can offer RSS feeds. Again, no matter what the type of data, it can be formatted the same way.Atom is an alternative format to RSS. Co-creator Tim Bray says Atom can label types of content more easily, specify human languages, and be reused in other computer languages. Atom also uses XML formatting.SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) sends messages in XML format between web services within a computer network. This makes it easier for programmers to automate site updates, as the computer can read the information in XML format and then use it in a way that humans can understand.XHTML (Extensible Hypertext Markup Language), as its name implies, is based off the traditional web language of HTML, but integrates XML. XHTML is more regulated then HTML and can be read by more specific parsers. It was designed to increase the compatibility between different data formats.