RSS Feeds

Welcome to  RSS

RSS Specifications - What is RSS

RSS is an acronym for Really Simple Syndication and Rich Site Summary. RSS is an XML-based format for content distribution. Webmasters create an RSS file containing headlines and summery descriptions of specific information, news, blogs forums or website content.
Users select the rss feeds (content) they wish to subscribe. The feeds are generally simple headlines and brief descriptions if the user is interested they can click to see additional information. RSS allows new websites to have instant free content and something additional to offer to their visitors. RSS, if used properly, one can legally make money and living from content generated by other entities.
 

While the majority of RSS feeds currently contain news headlines or breaking information the long term uses of RSS are broad. . There is also a more advanced version of RSS now used which is called ‘Atom’. An RSS file is a text file that uses ‘tags’ to identify what is the title, the summary text and the hyperlink to the original content, and sometimes some more detailed information, such as the author and copyright information. Within the RSS text file, simple HTML can be used to format the title and summary text that will appear to the user. The file is loaded onto a website, to be accessed via an RSS reader (aggregator), which is rather like a web browser, but which focuses on delivering lots of summaries from lots of sites at any one time, rather than viewing the content of a single web page.

Syndicate Your RSS

RSS has become the choice for delivering syndicated web content.

Have you ever wondered how some of the large news and content sites deliver their headlines?

Have you ever wanted to display news headlines?

Have you ever wanted to syndicate your own content?

RSS may be the answer you've been looking for.

RSS is a XML format specifically designed to share content. Netscape originally developed RSS to distribute news headlines and then abandoned the concept due to the lack of popularity. In recent years RSS has become the standard for content syndication.

RSS syndication has allowed for smaller content providers to gain exposure and increase their news and content distribution. The increased exposure has evened the playing field for content providers.

Consider syndicating your content if you wish to increase your exposure! Simply create RSS feeds and make the feeds available for syndication.
 

What is Needed to Read an RSS Feed?  RSS Feed Readers and News Aggregators

Feed Reader or News Aggregator software allow you to grab the RSS feeds from various sites and display them for you to read and use.

Where can I access an RSS reader?

A variety of RSS Readers are available for different platforms. Some popular feed readers include Amphetadesk (Windows, Linux, Mac), FeedReader (Windows), and NewsGator (Windows - integrates with Outlook). There are also a number of web-based feed readers available. My Yahoo, Bloglines, and Google Reader are popular web-based feed readers.  There are many kinds of readers, from stand-alone

applications (free and for-fee) to those built in to a Web browser. (Browsers such as Firefox and Opera have RSS subscription options already integrated.) You will either need to download and install an application or install an RSS-ready browser on your computer. Most of the applications are free and easy to download and install. Some of the more popular RSS readers: My Yahoo! (Online, Free) My MSNOnline, Free) NewsGator (Online/PC, Free/$) Bloglines(Online, Free) Pluck (PC, Free) SharpReader(PC, Free) FeedDemon(PC, $) NetNewsWire Lite(Mac, Free) NetNewsWire (Mac, $)

Once you have your Feed Reader, it is a matter of finding sites that syndicate content and adding their RSS feed to the list of feeds your Feed Reader checks. Many sites display a small icon with the acronyms RSS, XML, or RDF to let you know a feed is available.