What is RSS?

I have to admit that it has taken me a long time to get my head around RSS. I’m not sure why really because it is actually quite simple. When I first came across RSS I didn’t even make an attempt to try and figure it all out which is not like me at all. Normally I like researching things to find what they are all about. Well, eventually I had to do something since I had multiple blogs that all have the little RSS icon prominently placed at the top of the page, so it was about time I figured out why.

What is RSS?

RSS is a way of providing your updated web content to your visitors and for them to see the updates in  an easy to view format.

The acronym RSS stands for a number of different things depending on who you ask:

– Really Simple Syndication
– RDF Site Summary
– Rich Site Summary

So, lets say for instance that you regularly visit six different blogs on the internet. Each day you go to each site via your bookmarks and you check to see if they have added anything new. This, as we know can be very time consuming as you have to wait for each page to load and then check if they have actually added anything new since your last visit. It can also be annoying if you check daily and nothing new has been updated.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could access all the latest posts for your favorite blogs in only the one window? Well with RSS you can do just. The RSS feed from each of these blogs can be organized in such a way that they can be fed to you to you in an easy to read format.

Get Yourself an RSS Feed Reader

To view all the latest updates from your favorite websites on the one screen you require an RSS Feed Reader (aka Feed Aggregator) which will allow you to view your favorite blogs or websites content in an easy to read format.

You can get a reader from a variety of sources. I use Google Reader as it is free and comes with my Google email account but there are plenty of others available. Click here for a list of readers. You will need to choose one and follow instructions to get it up and running but believe me it’s just so much easier to use Google Reader.

Here is what my Google Reader looks like:

Once you have the reader up and running all you need to do is add your favorite blogs or websites. To do this you require the RSS feed URL for each website you want to add. Usually you can find this by clicking on the RSS icon on a blog or website. It will look like this:

You can see this on my blog at the top right of the screen. Once you click on this you will be taken to a screen where you should see a link that lets you subscribe to the feed. It will differ depending on the feed being used.

You can also subscribe to a websites rss feed from within the RSS Reader itself.

Bear in mind that the Reader itself will not always show the full blog post or update. In general, you will receive the title of the post plus a description of the post. If it interests you then you  click on the link to view the full post.

So that is what RSS is – a nice and simple way to provide updated content to your readers and a way for them to receive notification that you have made updates to your site.