Tom Jackson at the New York Times – Announcing Custom Times Feeds:

"About a year ago, we launched the Times Article Search API and the TimesTags API, two systems that allow developers to search our extensive collection of articles and to identify the canonical terms we use to describe them. Together, these APIs provide developers with the means to accurately find articles that are relevant to nearly any subject.

But there’s a problem with these (and most) APIs: they’re inherently narrow in their reach. The methods for using them are indecipherable for the average (non-developer) Times reader, and the data returned are formatted in a way that’s specific to each API, limiting their use across the Web. Enter the solution: custom RSS feeds."

Sounds to me like they should have based their Search API on OpenSearch: they would have gotten custom feeds for free…