What is RSS?
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a format for delivering regularly changing web content. Many news-related sites, weblogs and other online publishers syndicate their content as an RSS Feed to whoever wants it. Common examples are newsmedia, higher education institutions and organizations.
Why RSS? What can it do for me?
RSS solves a problem for people who regularly use the web. It allows you to easily stay informed by retrieving the latest content from the sites you are interested in. You save time by not needing to visit each site individually and search for new content. You ensure your privacy, by not needing to join each site's email newsletter. The number of sites offering RSS feeds is growing rapidly.
What do I need to do to read an RSS Feed?
Feed Reader or News Aggregator software allow you to grab the RSS feeds from various sites and display them for you to read and use. These programs are used by the owner of the feed to create the content for you.
A variety of RSS Readers are available for different platforms.
- Web-based feed readers such as My Yahoo, Bloglines, and Google Reader are popular
- Web browsers - add the feed to your Favorites and check any time for updated content - headline items
- NewsGator (Windows - integrates with Outlook).
Once you have your Feed Reader, it is a matter of finding sites that syndicate content and adding their RSS feed to the list of feeds your Feed Reader checks. Many sites display a small icon with the acronyms RSS, XML, or RDF to let you know a feed is available.
Then What?
Once you have identified your feed reader (i.e. your web browser, your Google or Yahoo account or phone/handheld reader), you click the Subscribe to RSS Feed button. You will be allowed to choose in what manner you wish to receive the feeds. From that point on, you will only need to review your feeds to see if new content items are available. Reading your feeds daily keeps you up-to-date.
