RSS feeds

What do you mean by RSS feed?

An RSS feed is an up-to-date information or list of notifications that a website delivers to its subscribers. RSS means "rich site summary" or "really simple syndication."

An RSS feed is read by an RSS reader or a feed reader, which can be either Web-based, a standalone desktop application or a mobile application. The reader aggregates all the RSS feeds that a user is subscribed to and presents them in its UI; this avoids the need for the user to go to each website just to read the updates.

An RSS feed is delivered in XML format, allowing maximum compatibility between readers.

Before the advent of RSS feeds, websites sent subscribers email notifications regarding new content. This was not optimal, however, as some emails could end up in the junk folder or mixed with other emails, plus the fact that the emails are formatted differently. In contrast, an RSS reader presents all the feeds using its own interface.

Advantages:

RSS gives benefits to both readers (users) and web publishers.

·         It gives you the latest updates. Whether it is about the weather, new music, software upgrade, local news, or a new posting from a rarely-updated site learn about the latest as soon as it comes out.

·         It gives the power of subscription to the user. Users are given a free-hand on which websites to subscribe in their RSS aggregators which they can change at any time they decide differently.

·         It saves on surfing time. Since an RSS feed provides a summary of the related article, it saves the user’s time by helpings/he decide on which items to prioritize when reading or browsing the net.

·         It is spam free. Unlike email subscriptions, RSS does not make use of your email address to send updates thus your privacy is kept safe from spam mails.

·         Unsubscribing is hassle-free. Unlike email subscriptions where the user is asked questions on why she/he is unsubscribing and then the user would be asked to confirm unsubscribing, all you have to do is to delete the RSS feed from your aggregator.

·         It can be used as an advertising or marketing tool. Users who subscribe or syndicate product websites receive the latest news on products and services without the website sending spam mail. This is advantageous to both the web user and the website owner since advertising becomes targeted; those who are actually interested in their products are kept posted.

RSS 2.0 File Extension

A specific file-extension for an RSS 2.0 document is not required. Either .rdf or .xml is recommended, the former being preferred.

How does RSS work?

RSS works by having the Web site author maintain a list of notifications on their Web site in a standard way. This list of notifications is called an RSS feed. People who are interested in finding out the latest headlines or changes can check this list. Special computer programs called RSS aggregators have been developed that automatically access the RSS feeds of Web sites you care about on your behalf and organize the results for you. (RSS feeds and aggregators are also sometimes called RSS channels and RSS readers.)

Producing an RSS feed is very simple and hundreds of thousands of Web sites now provide this feature, including major news organizations such as the New York Times, the BBC, and Reuters, as well as many weblogs.

How is the RSS feed file produced?

Unless you are maintaining a Web site or want to create your own RSS feed for some other purpose, how the RSS feed is produced should not be of concern and you may skip this section.

The special XML-format file that makes up an RSS feed is usually created in one of a variety of ways.

Most large news Web sites and most weblogs are maintained using special content management programs. Authors add their stories and postings to the Website by interacting with those programs and then use the program's "publish" facility to create the HTML files that make up the Web site. Those programs often also can update the RSS feed XML file at the same time, adding an item referring to the new story or post, and removing less recent items. Blog creation tools like Blogger, Live Journal, Movable Type, and Radio automatically create feeds.

Websites that are produced in a more custom manner, such as with Macromedia Dreamweaver or a simple text editor, usually do not automatically create RSS feeds. Authors of such Web sites either maintain the XML files by hand, just as they do the Website itself or use a tool such as Software Garden, Inc.'s List Garden" program to maintain it. There are also services that periodically read requested Web sites themselves and try to automatically determine changes (this is most reliable for Web sites with a somewhat regular news-like format), or that let you create RSS feed XML files that are hosted by that service provider.