Many people have asked me “what is RSS?” complaining they don’t understand what it means. This gives me the opportunity blog a bit about this concept to which some time ago I wasn’t familiar with.What is RSS?
RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” or “Rich Site Summary”.
It is a family of data formats (web feeds) used to deliver frequently updated blogs, websites, video or audio content on the web. As a standard, RSS is represented by an icon, with (or without) the acronyms RSS, XML, or RDF to let you know a feed is available on that website or blog.
Why Use RSS?
The RSS resolves the problem of spending much time checking websites for updates.
Assuming that you like the content of a number of websites which are updated daily, you will agree that it could take considerable time to visit those websites each time for updates!
Well, by subscribing to the websites’ RSS, you will save time as the updates are posted to your RSS reader (news aggregator), which is a small software used to read RSS feeds.
The RSS reader you may use could either be web-based or desktop-based. There are many of these readers, but I recommend Google Reader, which is free, web-based and can also used as a desktop-based reader. You may also use Google Reader for mobile on your cell phone. This way, you definitely stay up-to-date any time, any where
.Using RSS feed to obtain information on the web prevents you from “sharing” your email address on email subscription sites, and hence somehow increases your privacy on the web.
NDZULO’s Blog RSS Feed
This blog has a feed to which it is free to subscribe. To receive my blog’s updates via RSS, click here.
However, in addition to RSS Feed, you may as well subscribe to get updates by email. Click here to subscribe by email.
Thank you for your comments...!
Note: RSS as a web term should not be confused with other abbreviations…check them here.
RSS else where on the web
- On Wikipedia
- On RSS Specifications
- About Web feeds
- About RSS in plain English - Video.
- List of RSS Readers (Aggregators) on Wikepedia
2 comments:
While I understand the reason behind your post. Explaining why RSS feeds are relevant in today's web 2.0 era. I don't understand why you're promoting a particular RSS reader. You should have at least present to the users more choices so that he or she could make up her mind.
That being said. Cool post
Hi "lepetitnegre". Thank you for the comment which I appreciate much, and motivates me to update the post to include a link to a broad list of RSS Readers, both web-based and desktop-based. However, your questions lay the foundation for an upcoming post in the making.
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