What is RSS?
RSS is a family of XML file formats for web syndication used by news websites and weblogs. It stands for Really Simple Syndication. RSS 2.0 supports enclosures, which is what the MP3 file is.
RSS is used to provide items containing short descriptions of web content together with a link to the full version of the content. This information is delivered as an XML file called RSS feed, RSS stream, or RSS channel. An orange rectangle with the letters XML is often used as a link to a site’s RSS feed. RSS feed is a rather technical name. From a functional point of view it is better to talk about web feed.
In 2004 and 2005, use of RSS spread to many major news organizations, including Reuters and the Associated Press, after several years of use by weblogs, technology publications and other early adopters. The first online news site to use RSS feeds was Variety.com (http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=rss) in June of 2002. Under various usage agreements, providers allow other websites to incorporate their “syndicated” headline or headline-and-short-summary feeds.
RSS is widely used by the weblog community to share the latest entries’ headlines or their full text, and even attached multimedia files. (See podcasting, broadcatching and MP3 blogs.)
A program known as a feed reader or aggregator can check RSS-enabled webpages on behalf of a user and display any updated articles that it finds. RSS saves users from having to repeatedly visit favorite websites to check for new content or be notified of updates via email. It is now very common to find RSS feeds on most major web sites, as well as many smaller ones.
Feed Readers or News aggregators are typically constructed as extensions to a web browser, as extensions to an email program, or as standalone programs. Some programs now also have native support of RSS and/or Atom, such as Mozilla Firefox (via “live bookmarks”), Mozilla Thunderbird (via “RSS accounts”), Opera (via an “RSS browser”), and Avant Browser (via “XML feeds”). RSS support will be available in the next version of Safari.
Web-based feed readers and aggregators such as the ones found on My Yahoo, Yahoo!’s user-customizable Web page, on Retronimo or on Bloglines, require no software installation and make the user’s “feeds” available on any computer with Web access.
Some aggregators syndicate (combine) RSS feeds into new feeds, e.g. take all football related items from several sports feeds and provide a new football feed.