12.2.1 What is RSS?

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12.2.1 What is RSS?

RSS is a Web content syndication format. The acronym ‘RSS’ underwent a number of meanings during its lifetime, but now is generally referring to ‘really simple syndication’. RSS is a dialect of XML that was created in the late 1990s to allow lists of information, known as ‘feeds’, to be published by content producers and subscribed to by readers. The availability of an RSS news feed is usually indicated in your browser by the presence of a smaller version of the XML button XML .

Very often, RSS news feeds are provided by news agencies, TV stations or newspapers. For examples of news feeds, see

http://www.nytimes.com/rss (New York Times),
http://news.yahoo.com/rss (Yahoo!), or
http://reuters.com/rss (Reuters)

Look for XML buttons XML on the Web pages of such content providers.

An RSS file is a simple structured list of news items consisting each of a headline, an abstract and a link to the full article that are encoded in a way that they can be easily used by programs called a ‘news aggregator’ or ‘news reader’. These programs allow users to read news or events from any number of aggregated news sites at one time.

Here are three examples of currently available news readers or aggregators which you may use to read the BSCW RSS news feed:

FeedDemon (http://www.bradsoft.com/feeddemon/),
FeedReader (http://feedreader.com/) and
Mozilla Thunderbird (http://www.mozilla.org/).

Modern browsers incorporate RSS news readers so that you can directly read news feeds in your browser:

FireFox 1.0 (http://www.firefox.com/),
Safari 2.0 (http://www.apple.com/safari/),
Opera 8.0 (http://www.opera.com/) and
Internet Explorer 7.0 (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/).

For more information on RSS, see http://rss.userland.com/ or http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss.

For lists of RSS news aggregators, see http://rss.userland.com/portals/ or http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/directory/5/aggregators. Or check with your preferred Web search engine entering ‘RSS aggregator’.

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12.2.1 What is RSS? RSS is a Web content syndication format. The acronym ‘RSS’ underwent a number of meanings during its lifetime, but now is generally referring to ‘really simple syndication’. RSS is a dialect of XML that was created in the late 1990s to allow lists of information, known as ‘feeds’, to be published by content producers and subscribed to by readers. The availability of an RSS news feed is usually indicated in your browser by the presence of a smaller version of the XML button . Very often, RSS news feeds are provided by news agencies, TV stations or newspapers. For examples of news feeds, see http://www.nytimes.com/rss (New York Times), http://news.yahoo.com/rss (Yahoo!), or http://reuters.com/rss (Reuters) Look for XML buttons on the Web pages of such content providers. An RSS file is a simple structured list of news items consisting each of a headline, an abstract and a link to the full article that are encoded in a way that they can be easily used by programs called a ‘news aggregator’ or ‘news reader’. These programs allow users to read news or events from any number of aggregated news sites at one time. Here are three examples of currently available news readers or aggregators which you may use to read the BSCW RSS news feed: FeedDemon (http://www.bradsoft.com/feeddemon/), FeedReader (http://feedreader.com/) and Mozilla Thunderbird (http://www.mozilla.org/). Modern browsers incorporate RSS news readers so that you can directly read news feeds in your browser: FireFox 1.0 (http://www.firefox.com/), Safari 2.0 (http://www.apple.com/safari/), Opera 8.0 (http://www.opera.com/) and Internet Explorer 7.0 (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/). For more information on RSS, see http://rss.userland.com/ or http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss. For lists of RSS news aggregators, see http://rss.userland.com/portals/ or http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/directory/5/aggregators. Or check with your preferred Web search engine entering ‘RSS aggregator’.

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