What is RSS?

Posted Saturday, 23 September 2006, 16:29 HST @020

I’ve received several questions from students who ask what RSS is, and what is has to do with blogs. Mark Evans had a nice post yesterday that pointed to:

http://cravingideas.blogs.com/backinskinnyjeans/2006/09/how_to_explain_.html

This site has a good explanation of RSS, and includes the graphic below, which was orginally posted at http://cravingideas.blogs.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/rssforoprah_1.gif

Another explanation is available at http://dir.blogflux.com/rss.php

If you look at the HTML version of this blog at http://hpu.sodeman.com/blog, you will see a subscription link. That page displays a number of web-based RSS readers, including Bloglines.com, the Web site that I’m using to post my blog and organize my favorite RSS feeds.

I set up an HTML version of the page on September 12 so that readers who are unfamiliar with RSS or Bloglines.com could check my content quickly. That page doesn’t list all of my blog posts - only the most recent articles. You can find all of my posts at http://www.bloglines.com/blog/wsodeman

I like RSS readers and recommend them to anyone who does a lot of reading on the Web. RSS allows you to set up one single place that lists or aggregates content that you want to read on a regular basis.

For students, professionals, and readers, RSS helps overcome one of the Web’s fundamental strengths - its distributed structure. Yes, I said “overcome”. We’ll discuss the client-server model in a few weeks, and don’t get me wrong - distributed computing can be a good thing.

Without RSS, you’ll spend a lot of time moving from Web site to Web site, reading your favorite columnists, newspapers and other content.

With a Web-based RSS reader, it’s very easy to read news, find new employment opportunities, track your packages, check the weather forecast, and more.

You might even be able to read your favorite RSS content on your telephone or PDA, depending upon its capabilities. Try pointing your mobile device’s Web browser to http://m.bloglines.com - but always emember that you’re responsible for any additional charges from your telecommuncations provider.