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What is RSS?
RSS is an efficient way to personalize, package, and distribute valuable information on the Internet. RSS is best known for delivering news headlines from newspaper or television news websites. Similar to the topical sections of a printed newspaper, RSS feeds are often tailored by the provider into categories, allowing users to receive only the content that is of interest to them. For example, users could subscribe to an RSS feed that syndicates financial headlines on a daily basis (or hourly as the online news cycle is much faster) from a popular online magazine. RSS is now emerging as a way to announce newly updated content from any Web site or blog – creating a version of a news wire for individual websites.
RSS feeds can be thought of as a push and pull service. RSS feed providers “push” content to subscribing users, and subscribers choose information that they want to “pull” or receive.
The unique qualities of RSS are its compact format and that it allows individuals to select information for free continuous syndication. RSS feeds use a simple XML format that includes a headline, a quote or concise summary (sometimes the full text), a published date, and a link to the full article or website. The feel of reading RSS feeds is very similar to using an email inbox allowing subscribers to view a full list of headlines or new content from numerous websites at once.
How to subscribe to RSS:
To receive RSS feeds, simply subscribe! An RSS reader or aggregate is needed to read RSS feeds. A RSS feed reader or aggregator displays RSS feeds in a user-friendly format, much like an email inbox. There are several different RSS readers, many of which are Web-based and free of charge. Some of the more popular readers are provided by Google, News Gator, or Yahoo. New versions of Microsoft Explorer or Firefox Mozilla Web browsers can also read the XML language in which RSS feeds are written, but they may not provide the subscription service to the feed.
After setting up a reader, subscribe to an RSS feed by clicking on the RSS title or icon on a Web site to obtain the RSS URL, which is in the address field of the web browser, then copy the URL; or right click (Control-Click on a Mac) the RSS title or icon on a website and choose "Copy Shortcut" to obtain the RSS URL. After copying the URL of the feed, follow the instructions provided by the news reader to add the feed to the reader. RSS feed readers may allow further user customization regarding how the feeds are received and arranged.
Article written by Elizabeth Marlow, Media Graduate Student & Volunteer |
