What is RSS and how does it work?
by admin on Apr.17, 2009, under Social Bookmarking
RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works, such as blog entries or news headlines from several different websites.
It allows individuals to easily stay informed on subjects of interest to them by gathering the latest content from all their favourite sites. Users of RSS feeds, save time and trouble visiting all these sites individually. It also ensures privacy, as it eliminates the need to join each sites email newsletter.
The feeds allow you to see when your favourite websites have added new content. You can get the latest headlines and videos in one place, as soon as it’s published. In essence, the feeds themselves are just web pages, designed to be read by computers rather than people.
The number of sites providing RSS feeds is increasing rapidly and already includes prominent names such as Yahoo and BBC News.
RSS is generally agreed to stand for Real Simple Syndication, however not everyone adheres to this meaning.
RSS feeds can be read using software called “RSS reader” or “feed reader”, which is a piece of software that checks the news and lets you read any new articles that have been added. There are many different versions of readers some of which can be accessed using a browser and others are downloadable applications.
Browser-based news readers allow you to catch up with your RSS feed subscription from any computer, whereas downloadable applications enable you to store them on your computer.
In order to use these readers to access updates from your favourite websites you have subscribed to, an account with a reader is essential. Web-based readers such as Google Reader or Newsgator, can be easily subscribed to by clicking on an orange RSS icon, and following instructions.
As well as subscribing to a reader it is necessary to sign up to your favoured websites in order to establish a link between them and your reader.
Once everything has been arranged, the RSS reader checks the user’s subscribed feeds on a regular basis for new work, downloads or any updates it finds.
So if you fancy the idea of reading updates from all the sites you love, in one handy area then an RSS feed is for you.