Sep 02 2008
What Is RSS All About Anyway?
RSS Icon
What Is RSS
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication.
Unfortunately, the name, even when spelled out, doesn’t explain anything at all. Most new readers still will wonder, “What does ‘Syndication’ mean? And what’s so simple about it?” Let’s break this down by looking at what an RSS feed does for you.
Pushing Content
Until just a few years ago, if you wanted to keep up with a favorite web site, you had to visit the site frequently and search for new content. All the work ran one way – you had to bookmark a site; you had to visit the site; you had to find the new content on the site.
As blogs became more popular, this method became less and less practical. Some blogs were updated 10 times a day. Who could check in that frequently? But if you waited two or three days before going back, you might miss a great discussion in the comments section or you might miss some important news.
The frequent posts along with the community based nature of blogs made the old one-way communication impractical. RSS Feeds were born to “push” content from the blog to the reader instead of the other way around. Now technology did the work for you. New content was delivered to your desktop, much like email was.
What’s A Feed
In its infancy, RSS technology was developed and heavily used by computer people. This had the unfortunate side-effect of saddling it with some arcane jargon, like feed, syndication, and aggregator. Luckily, you’ll rarely run into these words anymore.
RSS content that is gathered into an update is called a feed. It’s just a collection of new posts or comments that is sent out to people who have asked to be notified every time the blog is updated. This request to be notified is known as a subscription. If you are a regular reader of a particular blog, you will probably subscribe to its feed, just as you might subscribe to a newspaper or magazine.
Formerly, the actual feed was sometimes displayed on a special XML blog page whose URL you were expected to paste into an aggregator. The aggregator handled the subscription. This somewhat opaque process and terminology has, thankfully, been replaced by simpler actions and labels as blogs and RSS feeds have gained in popularity.
What’s A Reader
The Bloglines Front Page
Aggregators are now simply called Readers. An RSS Reader will display all your subscriptions in one place, so that you can quickly scroll through them and identify newly updated blogs with just a glance. Bloglines and Google Reader are among the most popular readers. Both are free (as are virtually all blog readers now) and both are browser based. That means that you don’t have to read your favorite blogs at a particular computer. Since the readers are browser based applications, you can log on from anywhere, at any time, and see only new content. All the information about which blogs you follow, which posts have been read, etc is handled by an online database. You are free to roam.
How Do You Subscribe
Over time, blogs and readers have not only become friendlier, they’ve become smarter. Readers are now able to sniff out the XML feed unaided. All you need to do is click on a subscribe button and the magic happens behind the scenes.
If you want to subscribe to a blog, look for the orange RSS icon. Clicking on it will usually take you to a page that asks what reader you use. Click on your favorite reader, and the subscription should begin. (Depending on your reader, you may have to verify the request.)
RSS Feed Chicklets
Sometimes, instead of the RSS symbol, you might see a series of “chicklets.” These tiny icons handle subscriptions designed for particular readers. If you use My Yahoo, for instance, you’d click on the My Yahoo chicklet.
Occaisionally, you might be unable to locate the RSS feed for a given blog. This doesn’t always mean there isn’t a feed. It can sometimes be the case that the blog owner has neglected to add a subscribe button. You can always try copying the URL of the blogs main page and pasting it into the “Add” section of your reader.
Some blogs, including Information Sells, offer email based subscriptions as well as reader feed. If you prefer to read blog posts as email, look for the special Subscribe By Email form or button near the other RSS icons.
Click Here To Subscribe to Information Sells
RSS In Plain English
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU[/youtube]
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Thank you for a wonderfully clear explanation in easy to understand language.
Your articles are most helpful … especially for someone who thought a chicklet was a piece of gum!
Marlene
http://www.the-savvy-seller.com