RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication”. It is a simple and efficient way to distribute a list of headlines update notices, and sometimes content to a wide number of people.

What Issues Does RSS Address?

Most people are interested in many websites whose content changes on an irregular and unpredictable schedule.  Examples of such websites are news websites, community and club / organization information pages, product information pages, medical websites and weblogs.  Having to repeatedly check each website to see if there is any new content can be very tedious.

Email notification of changes was an early solution to this problem.  Unfortunately, when you receive email notifications from multiple websites, they are frequently disorganized and can get overwhelming and are often mistaken for spam.

RSS is a more effective way to be notified of new and updated content.  Notifications of changes to multiple websites can be presented to you in a convenient and well organized format.

How Does RSS Work?

RSS works by having the website author maintain a list of notifications on their website in a standardized format.  This list of notifications is called an “RSS Feed”.  People who are interested in finding out the latest headlines or changes can check or subscribe to this list.  Special software programs called “RSS aggregators” have been developed that automatically access the RSS feeds of websites that you are interested in and organize the results for you (RSS feeds and aggregators are also sometimes called “RSS Channels” and “RSS Readers”.).

Producing an RSS feed is very simple and hundreds of thousands of websites now provide this feature, including major news organizations like the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Sacramento Bee, as well as many weblogs.

What Information Does RSS Provide?

RSS provides very basic information, which normally includes a list of items presented in order from newest to oldest.  Each item usually consists of a simple title along with a descriptive sentence and a link to a web page with the actual information being described.  Sometimes this description is the full information you want to read (such as the content of a weblog post) and sometimes it is just a condensed summary.

RSS Aggregator Programs

Think of an RSS aggregator as just a web browser for RSS content.  RSS aggregators automatically check a series of RSS feeds for new items on pre-defined basis (hourly, daily, weekly…  You can set the preferences defining the schedule), making it is possible to keep track of changes to multiple websites without needing to tediously read and re-read each of the websites yourself.  They detect the additions and present them all together to you in a compact and useful manner.  If the title and description of an item are of interest, the link can be used to quickly bring the related web page up for reading.

There are many RSS aggregators available, many of which are free. Some are accessed through a browser, some are integrated into email programs, and some run as a standalone application on your personal computer.

Which Websites Have An RSS Feed?

RSS feeds are becoming more and more common.  Website frequently indicate the existence of the feed on the home page or main news page with a link to “RSS”, or sometimes by displaying an orange button with the letters “XML” or “RSS”.  Text “RSS” links sometimes (there are lots of variations) point to a web page explaining the nature of the RSS feeds provided and how to find them.  The buttons are often linked directly to the RSS feed file itself.

Once you know the URL of an RSS feed, you can provide that address to an RSS aggregator program and have the aggregator monitor the feed for you.  Many RSS aggregators come preconfigured with a list to choose from of RSS feed URLs for popular news websites.

Other Uses

In addition to notifying you about news headlines and changes to websites, RSS can be used for many other purposes.  There does not even have to be a web page associated with the items listed — Sometimes all the information you need may be in the titles and descriptions themselves.

Some commonly mentioned uses are:

* Notification of the arrival of new products in a store
* Listing and notifying you of newsletters
* Alerts for weather and other changing conditions
* Notification of additions of new items to a database, or new members to a group

One RSS aggregator is all that you need to read all of the RSS feeds, whether they are headlines, alerts, changes or other notifications.  RSS has become a very popular and useful means for communicating.