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Syndicated Content
"RSS" what is it and why do you care?
When I first decided to set up my blog a few months ago (after holding out for years), I encountered terms I hadn't heard of. "RSS" was one of them. The articles and reports about blogging told me that others could subscribe to your "feed" whatever that was. Maybe blogging was harder than it seemed at first. If I had no idea what these were, what chance did other tech-adverse people have?:
"RSS" stands for "really simple syndication” (although some techies say it stands for “really simple stupid!" (Techies don't like the rest of us very much, apparently :) It allows special "news readers" to collect updates from the Web sites and blogs you select, or those selected for you by default. Once you find a Web site you like, or a blog that you want to follow, the newsreaders send you all updates from those blogs or Web sites. Instead of having to go to them, they come to you. (This is often called "news aggregation.")
To get started, first look for any "XML" or "RSS" feed buttons at your favorite sites and blogs. Other commonly used terms to identify news feeds include: "Atom", "RDF" or even something as simple as "Grab My Feed" or "My Feed." The feeds will appear as lots of code only, until you get a reader to decipher the code. (Web sites work the same way, and your browser deciphers the web codes, making them appear as graphics, text and multimedia content.)
In order to subscribe to the feed, you need to check the address that appears in your browser bar when you click on these feed buttons. (You'll find this on your browser toolbar where the address of the Web site usually appears. It typically begins with http://.) You must copy that address completely, and paste it into your newsreader to subscribe to that feed. (How this is done depends on which news reader you are using.)
Parry Aftab
Follow this link for a list of the most popular news readers >>