RSS

RSS is an acronym that stands for Rich Site Summary, though it’s often alternatively defined as Really Simple Syndication. Blogs, Podcasts and wikis all make use of RSS. RSS feeds are the structures that organize content which is being updated on a regular basis in order for others to retrieve it. This content could be articles, blog posts, photos, PDF documents, PowerPoint Presentations, audio files, video files, or other applications. Although RSS feeds were once used primarily in blog, listeners can subscribe to their favourite audio blog, also called a podcast, and download the audio files to be played on personal computers or mobile devices. This created a media which resembles a radio show, where the shows can be listen to at any time. Similarly, video blogs, also known as vlogs, created a type of archived video shows that can be downloaded and viewed at the convienience of the users. Feeds are most commonly used with web sites that are frequently updated, like blogs and news sites. By creating a ‘feed’, the author can easily syndicate his or her content in a format that others can access by subscribing to the feed. When the author changes the content on the site, it’s automatically updated on the desktop or web page of every single person who subscribes to that feed. Most blogging, podcasting and wiki softwares will create the RSS feeds automayically. Feeds are most commonly referred to as pulling, rather than a pushing technology. Pushing technology is broadcasting a message and hoping that someone will come by your website or your television station to listen to it. RSS is pulling technology because visitors subscribe to your message and can retrieve it whenever they want. A feed aggregator (RSS reader) lets you know if the sites that you have bookmarked have updated their site with new content. This gives you the option of downloading the new content if you desire. The aggregator holds a list of web sites and resources that offer RSS feeds. When it’s opened the aggregator retrieves the information from each RSS feed page listed by the user and puts it all in one searchable, readily available place. The aggregator may be a desktop application, a browser or mail application extension, or web-based (some of them are commercial products and others are freeware). A few applications already have aggregators built into them – Apple’s Safari browser, Opera Web Browser, Internet Explorer 7, Microsoft Outlook etc. Windows XP users can upgrade to Internet Explorer 7 for free to subscribe to RSS feeds within their browser. Both Macintosh and Windows users can use the [|free Flock web browser] which also supports easy RSS feed reading. Mac users can also read and subscribe to RSS feeds with Safari. New tools (e.g. Netvibes, Pageflakes) have come into existence because of RSS feeds which allow you to remix and reformat the content of a feed in a countless different ways (mash-ups). So how do you find and use the RSS feeds. Most sites have a little orange icon similar to this. Now many aggregators provide their icons. If you using one of these aggregators, then simply click on its icon to add the site to your reader. Below are icons that will add this site to the Google Reader or Netvibes. If you are using the latest version of Explorer, Flock etc., then clicking on the RSS feed icon will load the feed url and give you the option of saving it in the browsers bulit in RSS reader. Cool!