Nov 02 2007
RSS - What is it and what does it do?
There seems to be some confusion about RSS going around. I’ve been getting a lot of questions about it here in the past couple of weeks, so I thought I’d jump in and talk a little bit about it, offer a quick explanation and hopefully help folks understand what it is and how it works.
I will get back on my top questions about blogs next week.
If you have visited a news website, you’ve probably seen this icon once or twice before and wondered what it was:
That little icon lets you know that the site you are visiting offers an RSS feed. The term ‘RSS’ stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication’ and is used in conjunction with an RSS reader to allow you, the reader or user, to subscribe to content on that site which is updated frequently - like a blog. Like this very blog you are reading right now. Other types of RSS feeds include news headlines, podcasts - anything where the content of the site updates often.
Sometimes you will see a similar icon only it will say XML in it - whatever the icon they are using, it still means the same basic thing - there’s an RSS feed you can subscribe to or see.
An RSS feed or channel can show summaries of content or sometimes even the full text - and either way they usually include a link to take you to the site for the ‘full story’. This makes it possible for the reader to keep up with multiple sites without having to check each one manually. Think of it like a using the tv guide function on Digital Cable - you can scroll through, see what’s on, view a quick summary, and then if you want, goto that channel and see the full show.
You subscribe and access RSS through readers called ‘RSS Readers’, ‘Feed Readers’ or an ‘Aggregator’. Which one you use dictates how it works, looks and feels. As an example, the Safari web browser has a built in RSS ability (shown below):
Some email clients, such as Mozilla’s Thunderbird, are RSS capable as well:
There are a lot of different aggregators out there; some you install (local clients), some you don’t (web based).
A short list of local clients (installed applications):
Mozilla Thunderbird
Microsoft Outlook
BlogBridge
FeedDemon
Opera
Safari
A short list of web based clients:
Bloglines
Google Reader
NewsIsFree
Planet Aggregator
Like all web technologies, RSS is still evolving. Today, it’s a powerful and robust method of syndicating content quickly and cleanly in a format that allows readers to stay informed. There are lots of ways to access RSS and each method has it’s pros and cons but what it ultimately comes down to is which ones offer you the interface and options you like the most.
I suggest, if you are interested in RSS, that you give each one a try and go with the one that works best for you.