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By Claudia
Lynch, Benchmarks Online Editor
T he
wikipedia entry for RSS
begins:
RSS is a family of
Web feed formats used to publish frequently
updated content such as
blog entries, news headlines or
podcasts. An RSS document, which is called a
"feed," "web feed," or "channel," contains either a
summary of content from an associated web site or
the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to
keep up with their favorite web sites in an
automated manner that's easier than checking them
manually.
RSS content can be read using
software called an "RSS reader," "feed reader"
or an "aggregator."
The user subscribes to a feed by entering the feed's
link into the reader or by clicking an RSS icon in a
browser that initiates the subscription process. The
reader checks the user's subscribed feeds regularly
for new content, downloading any updates that it
finds.
Clear as mud? If not keep reading.
RSS in Plain English
The folks at Common Craft
have created this handy video to help people understand RSS better. As
they say, "There are two types of Internet users, those that use RSS and
those that don't. This video is for the people who could save time using
RSS, but don't know where to start."
Now that you "get" the concept of RSS, you'll start to notice the
symbols for RSS feeds everywhere. Like anything else, of course, you
need to be judicious in your subscriptions. Subscribing to RSS feeds
doesn't free you completely from information overload. It just comes in
a new format. According to the article
Of course, you know what RSS is ... so here's an article for your
clueless boss, written back in 2005, "Microsoft blogger Robert
Scoble claims to consume 500 or more information sources on a daily
basis, something no human could do without using an RSS reader." That
was back in 2005. He now claims to consume 622 feeds but was up to,
apparently, 1,400 feeds a day at one time. How does he do it? See the
article
How Scoble Reads 622 RSS Feeds Each Morning
for answers to that question and more.
Further reading on RSS
Below are some more introductory articles on RSS, if you feel like
you need more information:
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