There are many places where you would have seen webpages with RSS Feed enabled. Some sites specifically indicate it, other sites have the symbol to show that there is RSS Feed enabled in the site. So what is it all about? This article will try to explain the same.
What is RSS?
RSS (Rich Site Summary) is a format for delivering regularly changing web content. Many news-related sites, weblogs and other online publishers syndicate their content as an RSS Feed to whoever wants it.
Why RSS? Benefits and Reasons for using RSS
RSS solves a problem for people who regularly use the web. It allows you to easily stay informed by retrieving the latest content from the sites you are interested in. You save time by not needing to visit each site individually. You ensure your privacy, by not needing to join each site's email newsletter. The number of sites offering RSS feeds is growing rapidly and includes big names like Yahoo News.
What do I need to do 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.
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.
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.
There are also readers offered by two of the most famous Internet Browsers: Mozilla Firefox 2 and Internet Explorer 7.
In Mozilla Firefix 2 Browser the rss feeds coem through the in-built Mozilla feed as shown in the screenshot below:
In IE 7 the Feed will be enabled whenever you visit a RSS Enabled website like Yahoo News or Google News as shown:
RSS Feeds are very useful and fetch you the latest stories from around the web in no time. I personally used Google Reader which is the only known site for having fully utilized the RSS Feeds benefits and have borne fruits! Please check out Google Reader site for yourself.
P.S: I will try to put up an article on Google Reader and its features when I get time. Till then happy surfing!
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.
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.
There are also readers offered by two of the most famous Internet Browsers: Mozilla Firefox 2 and Internet Explorer 7.
In Mozilla Firefix 2 Browser the rss feeds coem through the in-built Mozilla feed as shown in the screenshot below:
In IE 7 the Feed will be enabled whenever you visit a RSS Enabled website like Yahoo News or Google News as shown:
RSS Feeds are very useful and fetch you the latest stories from around the web in no time. I personally used Google Reader which is the only known site for having fully utilized the RSS Feeds benefits and have borne fruits! Please check out Google Reader site for yourself.
P.S: I will try to put up an article on Google Reader and its features when I get time. Till then happy surfing!
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