RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds are digests of recently added information to websites. By subscribing to feeds, you receive updates when new information is added to a web site. RSS feeds can be aggregated (using an aggregater or reader) to allow you to see recently added information to web sites. By aggregating a number of feeds from different sources you can scan news, blog entries, etc. without having to go visit each site every time you want to check for new information. If you are a news hound and prefer not to visit web sites directly every time you want an update, then RSS is for you. Many people enjoy the act of ”surfing”, and for those people RSS probably does not make sense. The RSS paradigm is much different from the web surfing, and there is something of a learning curve with the tools used to subscribe to and read feeds.
How do I subscribe and read these feeds? Thanks to agreed upon standards for what a feed is, there are a number of ways that you can subscribe and read feeds. 1) The Firefox Web Browser and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 7.0 have built in RSS feed readers. Browser based feeds probably make the most sense for most users as the browser interface is already familiar. 2) Many email and calendaring programs support RSS. 3) There are numerous online services that allow you to subscribe to and aggregate the results of RSS feeds on a personalized web page of your very own.
I want to take the plunge. The whole story on RSS in all its technical and historical glory can be had from this RSS entry at Wikipedia.
Tags:
feed,
rss syndication
** Download the Best Videos on the Web for your iPod - Free! **
Read Related Posts
I can’t seem to break the habit of surfing, but I understand that I can read a lot more news using news feeds, clicking only on the stories that are interesting to me, and visiting the site that way.
I feel the same way. Sometimes I simply like to visit my favorite pages directly.