RSS RSS White Paper
According to this white paper by MediaThink,
RSS will be the next big thing on the web. As consumers take more active control of the messaging and content they consume, reaching them gets tougher.
So what is RSS? I've always seen the orange-coloured icon, followed by the characters 'RSS' on some of the Web sites and blogs that I visit. I decided to find out more about RSS, and more importantly, how I can use it.
Before we define RSS, we need to familiarise ourselves with the term Web Feeds.
Web Feeds
In simple terms, Web feeds are just a special kind of web page, designed to be read by computers rather than people.
Some content providers (website and blog owners) who provide news of any kind - articles, essays, images, music, video, weather, stock quotes etc - provide a feed link on their site. This allows end users to subscribe to the latest news once its published online.
Because there are many websites and blogs which might interest the end user, there is a need to "aggregrate" the news. Aggregators or feed readers, combine the contents of multiple web feeds for display on a single screen or series of screens. To subscribe to a news feed is quite simple : just drag the link from the web browser to the aggregator. Subscribing to web feeds is also known as ’syndication’
When websites provide web feeds to notify users of content updates, they only include summaries (headlines) in the web feed rather than the full content itself.
Feed reader (or aggregator)
There are more than 2,000 different feed reading applications (for text, mostly) or “podcatchers” (for podcasts). There are even readers that work exclusively on mobile devices. (Source : FeedBurner)
A typical interface for a feed reader will display your feeds and the number of new (unread) entries within each of those feeds. You can also organize your feeds into categories and even clip and save your favorite entries (with certain applications).
Some feed readers are free, and some require you to purchase for a small fee.
1. Web-based feed readers which allow you to access your feed updates anywhere you can find a web browser.
2. Desktop-based feed readers require you to download the program onto your machines. Examples are : Newsgator, Feed Demon
3. Users of Firefox browsers can use Live Bookmarks function as their web feeds.
How to add the websites to the News readers.
First, look for the subscription or feed options. Many websites have links labelled ‘XML’, ‘RSS’ or ‘Atom’; or they may have an orange button on their site.
Then, you can either click the relevant links (e.g. the ‘add to my Yahoo!’ button, if you’re using My Yahoo!) or copy-paste the link in to your feed reader. Sometimes there will be a button for your particular feed reader on the blog that will take you to the appropriate subscription page.
Advantages of web feeds over websites surfing
Compared to websites, web feeds have a few advantages for the user : (source: Wikipedia)
Users can be notified of new content without having to actively check for it. You don't have to click from site to site.The information presented to users (in an aggregator) is typically much simpler than most websites. Media files can be automatically downloaded without user intervention.
Advantages of web feed subscription over email subscriptions
Compared to receiving updates via the email, subscribing to web feed has these important advantages :
When subscribing to a feed, the user does not disclose their email address, so the user is not increasing their exposure to threats associated with email: spam, viruses, phishing, and identity theft. If the user wants to stop receiving news, they do not have to send an 'unsubscribe' request; the user can simply remove the feed from their aggregator. Your inbox will be uncluttered with news updates
(source: Wikipedia)
RSS and ATOM
RSS and Atoms are the two main web feed formats widely used. Some websites let people choose between RSS or Atom formatted web feeds; others offer only RSS or only Atom. The RSS formats stands for Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0), Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91, RSS 1.0) and RDF Site Summary (RSS 0.9 and 1.0).
The development of Atom formats was motivated by the existence of many incompatible versions of the RSS syndication format.
Whatever the formats that will eventually be accepted as a syndication standard by Internet Engineering Task Force, news feed has the following advantages for the reader, publisher and the advertiser.
Advantages to the different users of website:
Consumer : Subscribing to feeds makes it possible to review a large amount of online content in a very short time.
Publisher : Feeds permit instant distribution of content and the ability to make it "subscribable."
Advertiser: Advertising in feeds overcomes many of the shortcomings that traditional marketing channels encounter including spam filters, delayed distribution, search engine rankings and general “in-box” noise.
I've just subscribed to Bloglines for this blog.
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