RSS: Does What?

RSS: Does What?
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For those of us Internet “newbies” that have no idea what an “RSS” is or how it makes our lives easier, trust me, we need this process. To our younger counterparts, RSS documents are taken for granted and are a common-knowledge piece of data. In a nutshell, RSS- “Really Simple Syndication”- technology came about in 1999 and are formats which enable websites to automatically update information as it becomes available. A very important aspect to such sites as news- and discussion groups, blog sites, business advertisers, and other similar sites which require information to be periodically updated or changed. (Wikipedia, 2008).

Wikipedia reports that RSS documents are read through certain software called “readers” or more specifically, “feed readers” (a.k.a. aggregators ). This special software program is linked to documents and when a user clicks on the RSS button, the reader scans and uploads any new data that is found which relates to the specific site. This enables a site to have the most current information available to date. (Wikipedia, 2008).

Until I took this class, I had no idea that there was such a device as an RSS link to documents, much less how it worked. I was a little intimidated after reading several articles about the history and description of an RSS until I was able to set up my own account. In the back of my mind, I understood what the program was supposed to do; the job it was supposed to perform but I didn’t realize how easy it was to set up or how important it is to have an RSS linked to a document. It is essential to any website or any web page which involves changing information or data on an ongoing basis. To me, it is mind-boggling to think that if there were no such formatting process, a technician or programmer would have to manually change and update the information on websites and web pages. It would be so labor-intensive, such sites would be prohibitive to maintain.

What is RSS? RSS Explained (2007) describes RSS as a “problem solver” for users by enabling a website to constantly update information and content to that site. By linking a user to websites such as Google Reader, Amphetadesk, FeedReader, NewsGater, My Yahoo, and Bloglines, an individual need not go to individual sites or have to sign in whenever visiting their favorite web pages, which adds to the privacy factor for the user. The article states that the RSS feature allows sites, such as Google Pages or other feed readers, as was mentioned earlier, to access all or most of a user’s favorite, regularly visited sites from one location, at a finger’s touch.

An interesting webpage that gives descriptive terminology for RSS is RSS 2.0 at Harvard Law. The address is: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/rss/rss.html. The article gives users an idea of RSS is all about and what related terms mean to those not well-versed in the RSS technology (newbies, like myself, are pretty clueless when it comes to these more complicated elements of the Net. We need all the help we can get!). It also gives some examples of the link. (RSS 2.0 at Harvard Law). The article explains how the RSS format evolves from the original RDF format and adds new elements such as namespaces and is modular. RSS 2.0 explains that the forerunner, RSS 1.0, still carried the RDF header but actually was in a totally different format. (RSS 2.0 at Harvard Law).

An example of an RSS feed website is The New York Times webpage. It can be found at: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/index.html, NYTimes.com. It features news items found in the real time news addition of its newspaper. The website is continually updating its articles and utilizes the RSS 2.0 edition on the website. (NYTimes.com,2007). Other sites and pages which utilize this addition of the RSS feed are, as previously mentioned, pages such as Google Reader, which was my choice. I am not familiar with any other feed reader so I chose this reader because it was a preference of my instructor’s.

Services such as Google Reader utilize the RSS link to make re-visitation to sites and sharing of favorite sites, as easy as a simple selection and click; that those sites will automatically be updated with currant information. I had no problem setting up an account and subscribing to some websites but I will admit that my comprehension (beyond understanding that this program element updates information and links to “feed readers” such as Google Reader which allow a user to access favorite or frequently-used sites from one location without having to sign in to the individual sites) is sorely lacking when it comes to understanding exactly how RSS works. Learning to navigate Web 2.0 and its various components such as RSS 2.0 is very challenging and will be fun when I get a little more experience with it.


References
RSS.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_(file_format)
RSS. (2007). http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/index.html
RSS 2.0 at harvard law.http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/rss/rss.html
What is RSS? RSS explained. (26 July 2007). www.WhatIsRSS.com