What is it?
We are all used to reading web pages. Ordinary web pages are written in HTML, which is displayed by web browsers. RSS is similar to HTML, but is much simpler. An RSS page, known as an RSS feed, is a distilled and condensed version of the website, perhaps containing just links to new pages and their headlines, perhaps as much as the entire text of all the new articles. You don’t view RSS in an ordinary browser. Instead you view it via an RSS aggregator, a program or service that combines the RSS feeds you specify, and displays them in a way that you find convenient. Aggregators take many different forms. Some combine the RSS feeds into one personalized webpage. Others display RSS feeds like email, with a list of unread ‘messages’ sorted into different ‘mailboxes’. The RSS aggregator in recent versions of the Firefox web browser converts an RSS feed into a list of bookmarks.
Why should I use it?
Suppose you check the headlines on several news websites every morning, say BBC News, The Guardian, and MSNBC. You could visit each site and scan the home page for items of interest, and this is how you probably do it. For two or three sites this is not a problem – but what if you had to check a hundred sites every morning? And imagine some of those sites were updated every few minutes, and others were updated only every few weeks. It quickly becomes impossible to keep up. This is where RSS comes in. If each news site provides an RSS feed you can use your aggregator to view all the updates in one place. Finding new news is done automatically by your aggregator, and it takes you only a few seconds to see what has been updated.
How do I use it?
To view an RSS feed, you need an RSS aggregator. Many Windows users find SharpReader is suitable, but you can also Google for "rss reader" to find others. Having chosen your aggregator, you will then need to find some RSS feeds. Most web pages that have a corresponding RSS feed have a link to the feed somewhere on the page – usually it says “RSS Feed” or "XML Feed", or something like that. Subscribing to an RSS feed depends on the RSS aggregator you use. Normally you have to right click on the RSS link and select "Copy URL" or "Copy Shortcut" to copy the URL of the feed to your clipboard. Then you past this URL into your aggregator.
Why should I publish it?
Bottom line: an RSS feed makes it easier for people to find and use the information you publish on your website, which will make your site more successful. Even if you don’t have a news page on your site, and RSS feed of site content can still be useful. Have an online catalog? Publishing it as an RSS feed as well as a webpage can put your catalog closer to the fingertips of your clients, making it easier for them to order from you. Publish an email newsletter? Consider sending it out as an RSS feed too. Because of the increasing problem of spam, people are reluctant to give out their email address. Sending your newsletter as RSS means people can subscribe to it without giving you any personal details at all. This means more people will subscribe.
Published October 17, 2005