What Is RSS?

Tools

By Scott Sarvay

Story Published: Nov 3, 2009 at 7:18 PM EDT

Story Updated: Nov 3, 2009 at 7:23 PM EDT

RSS is information that works on bring News to you. Just like the newspaper would be delivered to your door by someone. That digital someone delivering your news is RSS.

  • RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is an informational feed used to publish frequently updated items on the web such as news headlines, blogs, audio, and video, in a standardized format. An RSS document, which is called a feed, or channel, and usually includes a summary of the items.

    • For most news sources, updates happen all day long and to save you from constantly checking that site for updates. RSS checks the site for you and reports to you when there is something new.

    RSS gives you the flexibility to watch for new information from multiple sources from one centralized location.

    There are two main ways of subscribing to an RSS feed.

  • Your Internet Browser – Most modern browsers have the ability to understand an RSS feed. Usually found within your bookmarks/favorites listing.

  • An RSS Reader – A dedicated program used to manage RSS feeds.

    • When viewing a web page look for the generic RSS icon RSS Feeds, it symbolizes that a feed is available for subscription.

    By subscribing several things might happen depending on how your computer is set up.

  • The link will open a page displaying the titles of different stories. Copying and pasting this pages web address into an RSS Reader will give the reader the location to start receiving updates to deliver to you.

  • The link will ask you to subscribe to a “Feed”, a section found with your browser’s bookmark/favorites section.

    • At this point open your choice of RSS Reader and watch as your subscriptions keep you updated with new information.

    Click for a list of all available RSS Feeds from My TV 20.

    Click for a YouTube video on RSS.

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