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Use RSS Today!
Although it's pretty old news these days, most people still have not tried using RSS to sort out updates on their favourite websites and manage the flow of information.
It's possible that many people assume it's difficult to pick up. Maybe they are just too used to the old method of manually visiting each website and checking for updates.
But whatever it is, it's TIME for you to give RSS a try! We will show you just how easy and convenient it can be.
First, let's start with a little primer on RSS.
What Is RSS?
RSS is a type of web feed format that outputs specifically in XML. It is used for web-based syndication. In other words, it's system by which websites can automatically send news and articles to their readers and other websites.
There are, of course, several different RSS systems :
- Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0)
- Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91)
- RDF Site Summary (RSS 0.9 and 1.0)
What Does It Do?
RSS is mainly used in websites that are updated frequently. Such websites include blogs, as well as large news websites like CNN and Reuters.
What RSS does is allow that website to automatically provide a summary of its content though a web feed that is primarily in the form of an XML file. This is called the RSS feed or RSS stream.
This allows you to quickly scan through the updates on your favourite sites. Of course, a link to the full article itself is usually provided in that summary. So, you can open up the full article should it perk your interest.
To read these RSS streams though, you will need an RSS reader or an RSS aggregator. What the RSS reader does is read the RSS streams from your favourite websites and checks for updates. It then takes the information from the RSS streams and displays a list of updated articles.
Of course, you can only read RSS streams from websites that actually create them. RSS-enabled websites can be usually identified by the symbol 
or the words 
or 
, usually placed at the bottom of each page.
Using RSS
Some web browsers such as Mozilla Firefox and Opera have an integrated RSS reader that checks for RSS feeds. But if you prefer a separate reader, or if your web browser does not come with an integrated RSS reader, there are third-party RSS readers that work just fine.
Here is a short list of RSS readers that are available out there.
- RSS Reader (http://www.rssreader.com/)
- Sharp Reader (http://www.sharpreader.net/)
- RSS Bandit (http://www.rssbandit.org/)
- RSS Owl (http://www.rssowl.org/)
- Mozilla Thunderbird (http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird/)
A much larger list of RSS readers can be found here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_news_aggregators.
