What Is An Rss Feed?

There was a time on the Internet when if you had 10 different websites you liked

, you would have to visit each individual to see if any new content has been posted. Think about continually visiting 10 different news sites - some of which post each hour, other posting multiple times an hour - trying to access the latest information available.

RSS, or "Really Simple Syndication," fixed that. Any website can create an RSS feed. This feed contains all the pertinent data - text, pictures, metadata, etc. - but allows an RSS reader (sometimes called an "aggregator" or a "feed reader") to customize how that data is formatted and displayed.

This makes following dozens or even hundreds of blogs and websites manageable. The aggregator - which may be web-based or standalone - will automatically display the latest post from all its subscriptions, practically in real time. Each post for every website will all be displayed in one convenient place for the user to access.

RSS feeds can be customized in terms of what data they send out. For instance, if a website posts a 1000-word blog, the feed can be programmed to only send out the first 100 words or perhaps just a headline, forcing users to visit the actual website if they want to read the rest of the post. RSS feeds can instead only send out a summary of the article - written by the website - which gives an overview of the whole article, but still requires people to visit the site to see the full content.

While most websites have a link to their RSS feed on their homepage - or some other link to help people subscribe - RSS feeds don't have to be created by the website owner. Anyone can create an RSS feed for any website. But unless you don't want to give people an easy way to see what you're posting on your website (and if you don't, you may want to ask yourself why you have a website in the first place) having a functional RSS feed on your site is good.

RSS feeds have changed the Internet from a place where you have to go out and get information, to a place where information comes directly to you. And by doing so, RSS feeds and aggregators have made it easy for users to organize and consume the mountains of information continually being posted online.

So if you haven't already, try out a few aggregators and subscribe to a few RSS feeds. You'll be surprised at how easy it can be.

by: Jacque Crook

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