Among the most well-known and widely used features of Internet portals, Web sites, pages, and even email is the orderly list or compilation of news headlines and periodic update notices from different sources. Really Simple Syndication or formerly called “Rich Site Summary” facilitates such a facility.
Effective Content Updates
Most users are surfing dynamic content web pages — news sites, community organizations, professional associations, medical websites, product support pages, and blogs. As surfing on the Internet became mainstream in both business and recreation, there was an urge to save time and boredom by not visiting every other site and looking for changes all over again.
RSS is the effective distribution of information from a number of different sites for a mass of people. Such programs are known as RSS aggregators and take their update source through RSS and compile these updates to a manageable readable list of headlines, contents, and notices. Aggregators make it easier for computers to automatically download and track changes in contents but personalize related lists of headlines, which interest users.
Role of RSS Aggregators
Aggregators, sometimes called “RSS Channels” or “Readers,” compile the feeds from the various sites a user subscribes to and display them in one place. They are much like web browsers but for RSS content, providing a view of what is in the RSS feed itself. In HTML, information is presented to a user directly, but in RSS, computers can talk to each other.
How RSS Works
So RSS begins with an original Web site, which has the content, made available by the administrator. The Web site does this by creating an RSS document and registering it with an RSS publisher—a server that provides the document back to other Web sites as it is requested. It is on this site that an RSS feed, or channel, is also created listing contents; it is from the newest to the oldest, and it will have a title or a description and a link to the full content.
Content and Aggregation
Contrary to normal web pages that are coded in HTML, RSS content is coded in XML, allowing all the data of a feed to be in one file on a web page that an RSS aggregator can read. An RSS feed lists content from the most current down to the oldest. Often, titles and short descriptions fully fill any need to have to go to the web page.
Elements of RSS Syndication
RSS syndication has two major parts: source end and client end. The client end collects and makes use of the RSS feed, best represented by the browser of the Mozilla Firefox and desktop RSS aggregator programs.
Subscribing to RSS Feeds
Once the URL of an RSS feed is known, the address can be given to an RSS aggregator program that monitors the feed for changes. Many RSS aggregators are pre-configured with a list of popular news or information web-site URLs.
Types of RSS Aggregators
There are numerous RSS aggregators available to Internet users. Some are Web-based, some are part of email clients, and others are standalone applications which run on personal computers.
Evolving Uses of RSS Feeds
- RSS feeds have evolved uses beyond their original intent to provide:-
- Notification of new product arrivals for online stores or physical retail shops
- Listing of titles with notification of new issues for organization or association newsletters, email newsletters
- Weather alerts, including other alerts of this nature, such as geography changes
- New entries in the database, indicating details of items or numbers of registered members for clubs and interest groups
Future potentials of RSS Aggregators
With RSS aggregators providing the user with easier and more entertaining ways to access his/her favorite information, the applications of RSS feeds become wide in scope.
Read more : Understanding RSS Feeds in 2024
