So, I thought I'd give a little info here just in case anyone is not familiar with what RSS *is* - which is totally understandable given the rate at which the internet reinvents itself and supplies us with new terms and technology to learn.
The most concise definition I think, comes from
Wikipedia:
'RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines or podcasts. An RSS document, which is called a "feed," "web feed," or "channel," contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with their favorite web sites in an automated manner that's easier than checking them manually.
RSS content can be read using software called a "feed reader" or an "aggregator." The user subscribes to a feed by entering the feed's link into the reader or by clicking an RSS icon in a browser that initiates the subscription process. The reader checks the user's subscribed feeds regularly for new content, downloading any updates that it finds.
The initials "RSS" are used to refer to the following formats:- Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0)
- RDF Site Summary (RSS 1.0 and RSS 0.90)
- Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91)
RSS formats are specified using XML, a generic specification for the creation of data formats.'
For a more in-depth discussion of RSS click
here.
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ALL blogs, and many websites, have an RSS feed. On some blogs there is also an atom feed (these are essentially the same thing, just use different programming language to function).
Take a look at
my blog - in my menu at the top you will see an RSS section - mouse over it and you will see links to both my
RSS and
Atom pages. I provide these so that regular readers of my blog who use the aggregators mentioned in the paragraph above can easily 'grab' my new posts - like on this forum, I have added my RSS feed to my signature so that my latest post always shows up next to my username.
When someone clicks the link next to my username it takes them to the front page of my blog - the forum is able to grab the info about my last post using the RSS feed. I provide both RSS and Atom because some aggregator programs prefer one or the other.
On Agnes' blog - for example she has an
Atom link at the very bottom of her blog main page.
Her RSS Feed is
http://www.agnesikotun.blogspot.com/rss.xml (I only know this because ALL blogspot blogs publish their RSS feeds this way with /rss.xml at the end of the blog address) Other blog programs have different ways of providing the RSS URL.
Your RSS feed can be useful in many ways - for instance, when you submit your blog to a
blog directory it may ask for your RSS feed, or if you
create a 'blidget' for your blog it will use your RSS feed to display the recent posts along with the first few lines of text from each.
To learn more about how all of this works, check out
Wikipedia's article on aggregators:
"Aggregators reduce the time and effort needed to regularly check websites for updates, creating a unique information space or "personal newspaper." Once subscribed to a feed, an aggregator is able to check for new content at user-determined intervals and retrieve the update. The content is sometimes described as being "pulled" to the subscriber, as opposed to "pushed" with email or IM. Unlike recipients of some "pushed" information, the aggregator user can easily unsubscribe from a feed.
Aggregator features are being built into portal sites such as My Yahoo! and Google; modern web browsers; and e-mail programs.
The aggregator provides a consolidated view of the content in a single browser display or desktop application. Such applications are also referred to as RSS readers, feed readers, feed aggregators, news readers or search aggregators. Aggregators with podcasting capabilites can automatically download media files, such as MP3 recordings. In some cases, these can be automatically loaded onto portable media players (like iPods) when they are connected to the PC.
Recently, so-called RSS-narrators have appeared, which not only aggregate text-only news feeds, but also convert them into audio recordings for offline listening.
The syndicated content an aggregator will retrieve and interpret is usually supplied in the form of RSS or other XML-formatted data, such as RDF/XML or Atom."
My first article!
)
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