Tech Buzz: RSS

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RSS? What is this?

The trouble with living in the Information Age is paradoxical: There's too much information. It's everywhere. How are you supposed to keep track of all the news, sports, weather and blogs you follow?

If you're addicted to the constant flow of data that we know as the Internet, you're not going to be able to manage it without some help. One way to keep track of it all has grown very popular since its introduction in 1997: RSS. Short for Really Simple Syndication, RSS is a way to subscribe to a source of information, such as a Web site, and get brief updates delivered to you.

The original version of RSS, created by UserLand in 1997, stands for RDF Site Summary or Rich Site Summary. Netscape Communications used the technology to deliver content to users of its MyNetscape portal. In 2003, the name changed to Really Simple Syndication with the release of the RSS 2.0 standard when a new team began work on it.

RSS Feeeeeeeeeedss !!!!

These sources are called feeds. When you subscribe, you'll get a feed -- often a series of headlines and brief summaries -- of all the articles published on that particular Web page. This lets you scan the articles on the page more efficiently. Sometimes you'll even spot more headlines that you might never have seen buried on the original page.

Feed icon you come accross in many sites is 

How do I create RSS Feed?

RSS isn't really that different from a normal Web site. In fact, they're the same in one respect: Both are simple text files on Web servers. RSS uses the World Wide Web Consortium's Resource Description Framework (RDF) as a guide to tell a feed aggregator how to read the file. RDF is based on extensible markup language (XML). Since RSS is based on XML, however, the document contains information that tells the aggregator where to look for the standard upon which it's based. It's an extra step that happens on the back end and is invisible to you as you view an RSS feed.

RSS tags tell your aggregator how to display the feed on your screen. In addition to the size of the font and other details, RSS tags also include the name of the creator of the feed, the date it was published, when the feed was updated and more useful information that helps you decide which articles to select from the feed and read in full. Many news organizations and other Web sites that publish with their own proprietary systems have to build RSS into their Web code.

Tell me Something about RSS Reader...

Reading RSS feeds can be a great time-saver. In the time it takes you to scan whole Web pages for information, you can review headlines from dozens of sites all collected in one place. On the other hand, the ease with which you can view RSS headlines may convince you that you can subscribe to even more sites. You may end up spending just as much time reading feeds as you used to on regular Web sites.

Some of the popular RSS Reader Sites Google Reader and many blogging sites.

                           

Do you want to see full articles on one page? Or do you just want the headlines? Do you want everything organized by date, with the feeds mixed by most recent, or would you prefer to keep each site separate? These are options that your aggregator will give you help you enjoy your reading.Aggregators take many forms.

Different browsers handle feeds differently, but you'll probably be given a choice of options for handling the subscription.The popularity of RSS feeds has encouraged companies that offer personal home pages, such as Yahoo! and Google, to incorporate feed readers into their products. If you have a MyYahoo! or iGoogle page, you can add your feeds there.

Start using RSS Readers from today ! Keep track of the latest information :)

Regards,

Suman G