RSS is an abbreviation for Really Simple Syndication, Real-Time Simple Syndication, or Rich Site Summary and was invented in 1995.
RSS brings the best of the websites to you. Think of RSS
like your own personal assistant – all you have to do is press a little orange
square button that you are interested in. Next, RSS will automatically keep
track of all your favorite websites.
Many websites offer RSS feeds or sometime called web
feeds, which you can subscribe so that you are notified when new content
appears in chronological order. To subscribe, you will need RSS reader
software, which looks like an email inbox and some even offer pop-up
notifications.
Most RSS feeds keep a running list of the latest content
items posted to a site. Each item in the feed includes a headline and often a
summary that corresponds to a new piece of content on the website. Some venues
offer their full content (complete articles) via RSS feed instead of just
headlines and summaries. There are many other options to web feed content, too.
What are the main advantages? RSS feeds save your time by
looking through a web feed much quicker than you can browse a web site. You can
maintain a list of several RSS feeds from your favorites sites. In other words,
if (like most people) you have limited time for web browsing, you can check
your feed reader to quickly learn what your favorites sites offer, and go
straight to the items that interest you most. Lastly, RSS feeds are definitely SPAM-PROOF
and because you have not handed over your email address
or other personal details. You can unsubscribe from an RSS feed at anytime. Is that cool?
A list of popular online, desktop, and
mobile RSS feed readers available below:
- Yahoo! Pipes for Yahoo! email account users. www.pipes.yahoo.com
- Google Reader for Google email accounts. www.google.com/reader
- FeedDemon 4.1 for Windows users. www.feeddemon.com
- NetNewsWire for Mac/iPhone/iPad users. www.netnewswireapp.com
- Pulse for iPhone/iPad/Android/Kindle users. www.pulse.me
- NewsGator for Apps users. www.newsgator.com/rss-readers.aspx
Additionally, RSS makes it a great way to discover when new blog post cartoons, podcasts or online video clips. Social media services such as Facebook and Twitter offer RSS feeds making RSS handy for keeping track of your friends. The truth is no single company owns RSS and it does not have a central point of failure, so it is impossible to be bought or sold, shut down, blocked or used as a pawn by politicians or big companies. Facebook and Twitter play a similar role to RSS but when social media services rise and fall - RSS lives on.
Do you agree? Will Facebook and Twitter kill RSS in the future? What are your thoughts?
References:
Gahran, Amy. “What are webfeeds (RSS), and why should you need them?” Contenious.com. 4 May 2004. WordPress. 16 Jan. 2013
Turner, Adam. “Keep it Really
Simple, stupid.” The Age. 15 Sept. 2011 Web. 17 Jan. 2013
http://youtu.be/0klgLsSxGsU
I have never subscribed to an RSS feed, because I wasn't entirely sure how it functioned or whether it would be useful to me. But, the video did a terrific job describing a RSS feed and I thought Netflix was a great analogy.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, I feel as though I can't even come close to keeping up with the news. For instance, even if I have 5 main sites I want to visit a day- by the time I find time to check the site again the information has dramatically changed.
So, I think the concept of having the information sent to me is helpful because it saves me time.
But, the idea that RSS feeds are there so you do not go to a site and see the same information as a day or even a hour ago doesn't seem realistic- at least to me. Yahoo, ESPN, CNN, The New York Times, Facebook, Twitter are all updating their sites faster than I can keep up with.
Same here that I never fully understood what RSS feeds do for me. After I do the research, now RSS feeders are not bad at all. It helps to gather fav websites.
DeleteFYI, I saw and enjoyed reading your blog (good job!) - Service Campaign and I clicked on RSS button to subscribe your blog. That is a good way to gain readers to your blog.
The RSS feed sounds like an online favorites button. I think it's very handy to have a feed like this because it allows us to save what websites we like anywhere and any time.
ReplyDeleteHaving blogs and news come to you is so much better than going out and looking for new updates. Instead of checking all my websites for the updates if I could just check an RSS feed my life would be so much easier.
Allowing to people to subscribe to all of their favorite websites and having the information pop up on one feed is going to be the future of how we access websites.
The only downside would be that it doesn't allow people to explore and look around at other websites that maybe they would benefit from.
Thank you for leading and participating in a good discussion. I think RSS is a good way to have information find us.
DeleteI didnt even know what RSS was until this class. I really liked the video, and now i feel like a could use RSS if I had a blog or more website use.
DeleteThe advantage - RSS gives you control over receiving information you want without revealing information about yourself.
DeleteI never knew what RSS was until Robin Ching posted a blog about it. I don't think I will ever use RSS because I am afraid the notifications will annoy me. I don't surf on many different websites. I think the blog on RSS is excellent, I understood what it was in few words. I didn't need to do research to fully understand what RSS is. Good job on the blog. I think RSS will be beneficial for the people who always uses the internet.
ReplyDeleteEveryone has preference to use RSS or not. If I want to promote my future blog or website, I think it is a good idea to have RSS feeder to save my time. I do not need to email to everyone - RSS feeder takes care for me. Also, either blog or website won't be ended up in the spam mail.
DeleteI have never subscribed via RSS nor did I know what it was before your discussion. I do think that Facebook and Twitter might kill RSS feeds because you can receive every update you have ever wanted just by being someone's friend. You can only choose to eliminate these updates. Once you are friends, you automatically subscribe to them. I would not personally use RSS because constant updates would annoy me but I feel it is beneficial for people who are reporters to keep up with the news and latest information.
ReplyDelete