Really Simple Syndication RSS

Really Simple Syndication

We are familiar with the phrases ‘surfing the web’ browsing the internet’, but with the wealth of websites now online, carrying out the daily trawl of your favorite sites can be a time-consuming task – not to mention to offer.

But this need not be the case. Many websites now offer services called Really Simple Syndication (RSS), although it is often referred to simply as a feed. The feed is job is to bring the content from your favorite sites directly to you. When RSS first appeared, you needed a special program to receive feeds, but it is now possible to subscribe to them free of change from within your web browser, and this feature is going to show you how. And remember, feeds are not just for tracking news – you can also use them to get travel information, ticket updates for events and more.

What is RSS

In a nutshell, an RSS feed is a standardized format used to publish frequently updated web content. Any single feed might typically contain such information as a headline, and either a full rendition or a summary of the article, a publishing date and an author name.

The latest versions of RSS formats are created using a language called XML, which lends it great flexibility. As you browser the web you may encounter references to Atom feeds, which sound a lot like RSS. For all intents and purpose, they are the same thing. At some point in history, Atom was set up as an alternative to RSS, but almost all browsers and RSS readers are capable of accessing feeds in both formats.

Now that RSS feeds are so easy to use, you’ll discover feeds in more places than you would expect. Such as RSS feeds to keep customers up to date with the latest offers www.tesco.com/rss. travel website Last minute publishes feeds with updates on bargain holiday and theater offers (www.snipurl.com/4lnqk). Let us not forget, of course, that RSS is also ideal for keeping track of your favourit blogs and news-driven websites such as the
DNA (www.dnaindia.com/services/rss).

Being able to spot when a website is offering an RSS feed is also getting easier. Many sites these days plump for the increasingly familiar orange box, featuring a white wave-like design. But that is not to say they all do. Instead of the orange icon, you might also look out for a small rectangular box in orange or white with the word RSS written on it. And while orange is the predominant color associated with feeds there are still plenty of unconventional icons out there.

It used to be the case that you needed to download a special program called an RSS reader to subscribe a special program