Apologies for the lateness of this post, I haven’t been able to get to a computer with an internet connection before now. On with the RSS show.
RSS is a form of web feed documents which are used to publish frequently updated content. This content can take the form of blog entries, news updates, news headlines, podcasts and a number of other things. They are basically summaries of content from its associated website, forum or blog. RSS is extremely useful for keeping up to date with content from a number of websites, as it is a lot easier than visiting each website every time you log onto the internet. This is the best and most interesting feature of RSS feeds. Usually a website or blog that offers RSS feeds will have a button on its page that you can click which will subscribe you to the RSS content of that website. After you have subscribed all you need to do is check your web browsers RSS feed reader and you will find all your subscribed feeds in the column.
Recently internet browsers have started integrating feed readers into their software, but you can still quite easily download stand alone readers that can be used in conjunction with browsers that do not have their own build in readers. To read them you click the heading you want and a summary of that particular websites feeds will be displayed. Simply click the one you wish to read and the page will load up the full story or content update.
RSS feeds can also come in the form of podcasts. iTunes using a form of RSS reader for subscribing to podcasts. When a new podcast be comes available it is automatically downloaded onto the users computer for them to listen to when they want or are able to.
RSS defines an XML grammar for sharing news. Each RSS file contains static information about the website, plus dynamic information about new stories, which is surrounded by start and end tags.
I have only recently started to use RSS to my advantage, but I already find that it saves me a lot of time when it comes to catching up with news from the websites that I visit regularly. Not only that, the HydraHead Records online shop supplies an RSS feed, so when some hot new vinyl comes into stock, I’m guaranteed not to miss out on it!
Hi Lee, You’ve don a good job explaining RSS. I did my post on RSS as well and it is probably one of the hardest things to explain, yet it’s so simple. Even though RSS has been around for 10 years nearly I don’t think it’s really taken off yet, and I think it will find a much more central place in what people refer to as the third generation of the web.
I think in form of what it can be used for in business purposes, it extends far further than peoples imagination at the moment. Don’t get me wrong, people are using RSS at very advanced levels, but what we mostly see is it being used for news update, blog entries and podcasting.
The thing with RSS is that it’s part of the XML markup, this makes it very user friendly and very searchable and easy to index and organize. Just look at iTunes podcast section, neatly organized in categories, this is nothing more than a RSS browser really.
I think Kasper’s right on the money. RSS is probably the single most useful technology to hit the internet since email, and yet despite its simplicity, it’s very hard to explain. I managed to get my dad to start blogging his retirement, and setting up his own site was something I was able to talk him through remotely — but I’ve entirely failed to get him to even see the point of RSS, let alone get him using it. And yet he’s a bit of an information junkie that, if he ever got to use it, would really appreciate it.
But the interesting thing is that the content is so re-purposeable, and its delivered. Because XML only describes the type of data (this is a heading, that’s a quote) rather than the presentation of that data (this is 16pt bold Times New Roman, that’s indented and in italics), it can be reworked into any platform. Because it’s a push, rather than a pull technology, it can be delivered without any effort required on the part of the user.
There’s an opportunity here for music business — and I suspect it has something to do with liner notes and artist promotion. It’ll be interesting to see how you integrate this into your work.