WHAT IS RSS?
What is RSS? This question comes to a persons mind whenever he sees "Subscribe Via RSS" (or something similar to this with the word "RSS") mostly at a corner or below a webpage of a blog or a site (whose content changes often). Mostly it confuses the new comers to the online world and now with the growing number of blogs this term "RSS" is more often encountered. In this post I will try to answer these questions - What is RSS? and How to subscribe via RSS? so that you too can start subscribing via RSS and enjoy the benefits of this wonderful technology from now onwards.RSS is an acronym for "Really Simple Syndication" or "Rich Site Summary". Technically said - it is a XML-based format meant for content distribution online.
SOME DEFINITIONS - First let me start with a few definitions from various sources :-
- RSS is a Web content syndication format. Its name is an acronym for Really Simple Syndication. RSS is a dialect of XML. (source Harvard)
- RSS is a format for syndicating news and the content of news-like sites, including major news sites like Wired, news-oriented community sites like Slashdot, and personal weblogs. (source XML.com)
- Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a lightweight XML format designed for sharing headlines and other Web content. (source WebReference)
- Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is an XML-based format for content distribution (source CNET)
- RSS is an XML-based format for syndicated content. (source IBM)
- RSS is an acronym for Rich Site Summary, an XML format for distributing news headlines on the Web, also known as syndication. First started by Netscape as part of the My Netscape site, it expanded through Dave Winer and Userland. RSS started off in an RDF format. (source newsmonster)
MY EXPLANATION
RSS is a technology which connects a site with its readers. At one end it helps a site owner to syndicate his content and on the other end it reaches the subscriber and he can read it without going to the site.
Previously when a person liked a blog or news-site(for example) and wanted to keep himself updated with the latest content then he used to bookmark the site and had to return to the site manually each time he wanted the latest update. But this process can be done when a few sites are tracked but we all know as a person surfs online his list of bookmarked sites can grow really long and then comes the real problem - we waste a lot of time manually checking each bookmarked site - we also miss many - we also see not all sites are updated regularly - thus a lot of work and harrasement - may be after few days we start deleting some bookmarks to make the list short.
Here RSS technology comes to our rescue. We can use it to get updates from as many sites we want without going to the sites manually that too in one simple interface. More importantly it never misses a single update even if the site updates thousand times a day and that too without any significant time lag. We can read these any time according to our convenience. All read items can be removed so that we see only the unread ones. We can even go to a particular site whose update we are reading from the user interface. So no more wastage of time, no missing of updates, no need to cut down our list and above all no harrasement - thus a better user experience.
Even when I started surfing the internet I too used the technique of bookmarking but later when I read about RSS I switched to it and believe me - it is really a cute application - I just love to use it. And as most of you I am also not a tech person altogether but I got everything ready at the first go - it is really a technology built for the common masses (that is also why it is catching up so fast).
HOW TO SUBSCRIBE VIA RSS ?
To subscribe via RSS you need to first get a "RSS Feed Reader" or "RSS Feed Aggregator" - these are softwares that brings the updates of the sites to which you have subscribed for you to read in a single simple user interface. There are two types of these Feed Readers :-
To subscribe via RSS you need to first get a "RSS Feed Reader" or "RSS Feed Aggregator" - these are softwares that brings the updates of the sites to which you have subscribed for you to read in a single simple user interface. There are two types of these Feed Readers :-
1. Desktop Based - These comes as separate piece of software which you would have to install on your desktop and then put in it the feed URL of the sites whose updates you have subscribed. There are separate softwares for separate operating systems. It gathers updates when you are connected to the internet automatically and then you can read them even when you are offline. Generally these comes with a price tag and have lots of customizable features which can be confusing for new comers so I advice you to go for the second type.
2. Browser Based - Like Google Reader , Bloglines , NewsGator Online and Rojo . To use these - connect to the internet, subscribe to the RSS feed of the sites you like one by one and then open the site feed reader you want to use in your browser and sign in and there you will find all the updates of the different sites to which you have subscribed in a chronological order with the most recent one at the top. You can also subscribe through your reader by the "Add Subscription" button. You can mark the ones that you have already read to remove them from your 'to read' list. You can also read the RSS feeds directly in your iGoogle , My Yahoo! , My MSN or My AOL page by adding the feed URL of the site to these pages through the "Add Stuff" link.
The Browser based readers that I have mentioned are free and are also more convenient to use. I myself use Google Reader . Sometimes I also read through iGoogle .
After you have chosen your RSS reader you will have to obviously find some sites which offers RSS feeds. You can find if a site is offering RSS feeds or not by looking for the following symbols or something resembling these on a site which tells a site is offering RSS feeds :-
The Browser based readers that I have mentioned are free and are also more convenient to use. I myself use Google Reader . Sometimes I also read through iGoogle .
After you have chosen your RSS reader you will have to obviously find some sites which offers RSS feeds. You can find if a site is offering RSS feeds or not by looking for the following symbols or something resembling these on a site which tells a site is offering RSS feeds :-
After you have selected your RSS reader and subscribed to the RSS feeds of some sites open your reader and you will find a list of all the sites you have subscribed. Click on one of them and you will be presented with the unread posts of the site in a reverse chronological order with the most recent post at the top. Start reading the ones that you want by clicking on them. After reading a post mark them as read to remove them from your list. You can also remove the ones that you are not interested in by marking them as read.
ENOUGH OF THEORY NOW DO SOME PRACTICAL
The best way to learn anything is to do it practically ourselves. I think you have got a fair bit of idea of "what RSS is?" and "how to start using it?" now just do it yourself and I give you a gurantee that it will change the way you surf the internet for ever. If by chance you get stuck there is always help near you to help you so just go at it.
If you have any comment or suggestion to make or any question to ask please do it in the comment section below. Any response is highly appreciated.
The best way to learn anything is to do it practically ourselves. I think you have got a fair bit of idea of "what RSS is?" and "how to start using it?" now just do it yourself and I give you a gurantee that it will change the way you surf the internet for ever. If by chance you get stuck there is always help near you to help you so just go at it.
If you have any comment or suggestion to make or any question to ask please do it in the comment section below. Any response is highly appreciated.
0 comments:
Post a Comment