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What is RSS
Published: January 20, 2006
Whilst browsing around reading articles, as you do, I came across an often overlooked post about what all this new web technology does and what the benefits are. A lot of content is focused on particular skilled audiences but there is little to inform the many users of websites how they can effectively consume and use blogs, forums and other similar interactive sites.
What I want to focus on is RSS. Many of us create RSS with our blogs, many of us consume RSS with readers and browser bookmarks, but let's explain, in steps, what RSS is, what it does and how to use it.
What is RSS?
RSS allows internet users to subscribe to content, much like an email newsletter, but without having to fill out any forms or pass over any information. This makes RSS effectively spam free. Great.
You may have come across many of the little orange buttons such as the ones below. These are links that point to the RSS file.
How can I use RSS?
RSS summarises content, mostly news and articles but anything really. You need a tool that can consume RSS such as a reader or browser. I typically use RSS in Mozilla Firefox as it allows me to have live bookmarks. This is where instead of bookmarking the BBC Sport section, I can bookmark all the BBC Sport articles dynamically. Every time I load my browser, I get the latest sports news listed in my bookmarks.
If your web browser doesn't have the ability to use RSS, perhaps Internet Explorer, then you'll need one of the many free RSS readers available such as RSS Reader or Feed Reader.
How do I make RSS for my website?
This is a trickier one. Many blog tools such as Wordpress or Blogger make them automatically, even better is that when you use these tools they ping, or send your RSS feed to the many RSS sites around that help you market your articles.
If you have a site with lots of content and wish to make a RSS feed, try one of the many generators around such as BlogStreet RSS Generator.
How do I promote my RSS feed?
Online promotion is a big subject but just to simplify this post, visit both Technorati and Pingoat and submit your RSS feed to them. There are many more places to do this so Google for them.
Finally
RSS is derived from XML and is a global platform, browser and device independent format for the use of exchanging data. It's not the future, it's now, and it's a powerful tool that every website should employ, so start using it.
Many thanks for the Further Reading link.