What is an RSS feed?

The abbreviation "RSS" stands for "Really Simple Syndication". The idea of an RSS feed is that users may want to be informed automatically whenever some web site or collection of web sites produces new content.

A good example might be news stories on some particular topic. The web site releasing the stories would have feed creation software and the user would have RSS reader software which would automatically provide the news in the form of headlines, summaries and links.

What are some uses for RSS feeds?

• real estate listings
• announcements of sales from vendors
• public service announcements from city or county governments
• lists of job openings

There are many more possible uses.

How do I create or use an RSS feed?

If your web site is generating news and you want to make this available as an RSS feed, you probably need feed creation software. This can be downloaded, and it may cost money. What is does for you is create documents written in XML, the language used for RSS. If you like, you can learn XML, study the RSS specifications and write it yourself. This may be a lot of work (a separate XML documents for each item), and it is probably better to automate it.

If you are the user who wants to read the RSS feed, you need RSS reader software. This can be downloaded, and it may cost money. Some RSS readers are self-contained programs for Windows or Mac or LINUX, and others work through a browser. When you find a site that provides an RSS feed, typically indicated by a small orange box marked "RSS", and you want to subscribe to it, you need to provide the URL for that site to your reader program. This may be as simple as clicking on the "RSS" marker.

Where can I learn more about all this?

A good place to learn about RSS is this site.

You may also want to learn something about XML; the same site has a section on "XML Basics".

Miscellaneous comments

An RSS reader is also sometimes called an "aggregator".

The abbreviation "XML" stands for "Extensible Markup Language". It looks somewhat like HTML and is commonly used for passing data around on the Internet. The RSS reader will translate the XML documents into HTML to display them on your browser.