RSS

What is RSS?

RSS is technology used to monitor rapidly changing information on the web in an organized and user-friendly way. RSS stands for Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication and it is not limited to monitoring news sites. It also allows a user to monitor blogs, Twitter or Facebook pages, financial information, daily deals, classified sites, and government alerts to name just a few. By posting a “feed” on their page, web site owners allow RSS readers to search their site to continuously look for fresh and new information all the while maintaining user privacy.

There is a lot of confusion surrounding the little orange and white RSS icon that is found all over the world on news and blog sites. People find it odd that when you click on it, you’re taken to a webpage that looks unfinished. Did the website designers forget to do something here?

In fact the opposite is true. Putting that little orange symbol on a webpage is the final touch in making website information available to everyone as soon as it is put on the internet. The strange webpage you are taken to is written in what’s called XML code. XML is a special set of instructions to an RSS feed reader that tell it when the information for that particular webpage has changed or been updated. People who visit a webpage often for “up to the minute” information use this amazing technology to bring them the latest content from the sites they are interested in.

Benefits and Reasons for using RSS.

RSS solves a problem for people who regularly use the web. It allows you to easily stay informed by retrieving the latest content from the sites you are interested in. You save time by not needing to visit each site individually. You ensure your privacy, by not needing to join each site’s email newsletter. The number of sites using RSS feeds are growing rapidly and includes big names like Yahoo News.

How RSS works

When someone publishes a story on the internet, the website upon which that story is hosted may “push” that story using Extensible Markup Language. An RSS aggregator — basically, a program or service that reads these RSS XML files — retrieves the latest iteration of the XML file from the RSS source.

RSS works on a push/pull logic: The publishing site “pushes” an updated XML file listing the current content in the feed, then a reader or an aggregation service “pulls” that XML file, either when a reader refreshes her feed list, or automatically after a given period of time.