I decided to write this educational post after realizing how few people (outside of geeks and the Blogosphere) know about RSS and the benefits it offers.
What is it?
RSS typically stands for Really Simple Syndication, but some people use other names like Rich Site Summary
What does it do?
RSS provides a feed (syndication) for websites. This feed can be read by RSS feed readers. So what, you say? Well, let me elaborate.
If you check a variety of websites on a regular basis to keep up with the newest info, you spend quite a bit of time surfing only to find that the site hasn’t been updated or that you’ve missed several updates. With an RSS Reader (A.K.A. Aggregator), you can enter in the Feed Addresses of the sites you visit frequently. When those sites update, your reader will notify you of the new content. Not only do you know that the sites have been updated, you also get to see the title of the posts and the accompanying text (sometimes just a summary). RSS is kinda like an e-mail newsletter you might subscribe to. However, it is real-time and doesn’t flood your inbox.
What is it good for?
- Keeping up with a lot of info quickly and easily
Why you should use it?
- Saves Valuable Time
- Easy to Use
- Keeps you Informed
- Why Not???
How to use it?
- Get a Reader or Aggregator
- Add your favorite site’s feeds
- Get my Feed
- Check your reader program daily
- Enjoy
Note: I use NewsGator Online Google Reader and have been pleased so far
Beware, that without a reader your browser will most likely show an ugly, unformatted .XML file. Also note, that there a variety of RSS formats and variations (RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0, Atom, etc.) but most modern readers can handle most, if not all, of them.
Want to start your own Feed?
I’m not qualified to tell you how to program your own feed, but there are a few things to keep in mind if you publish a feed.
- Promote a Standard Icon.
- Use a service like FeedBurner to optimize and promote your feed.
- If a user clicks on a feed and doesn’t have a reader, provide an explanation of RSS to your users rather than an ugly, unformatted .XML file. (FeedBurner does this automatically)
Additional Resources
NewsGator: Why RSS
Answers.com
Feed 101
W3Schools
5 Responses to “RSS Education”
[...] flickrRSS (3.0.2): You can see this one in action on my home page. It grabs the latest photos from your flickr account via RSS. You can specify the quantity. [...]
[...] So in the next day or two look for my post “Does AdSense Make Sense?” Oh yeah, it might have partially shown up in my RSS Feed because I published it briefly before realizing that I was going to have technical difficulties. [...]
[...] The house is still in a mess with boxes everywhere and a few items still needing some touch-up paint. Overall, we’ve made quite a bit of progress. I hope to get Internet access next month. When that happens, maybe I will be able to provide some more updates to this blog. My RSS subscribers are getting a few more updates than normal site visitors because any bookmarks I post to del.icio.us are added to my feed. If anyone knows a good plug-in to post those bookmarks directly to wordpress so everyone can see them that would be great. [...]
[...] can see this one in action on my home page. It grabs the latest photos from your flickr account via RSS. You can specify the [...]
[...] all this talk about RSS feeds confusing you? If so, check out my RSS Education [...]