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What is RSS?
RSS is a content delivery medium that you can
use to receive content from various web sites and publishers.
In a world that is heaving under the weight of
billions of web pages, keeping up to date with only the information you
want can be a drag.
Wouldn't it be better to have the latest news and features delivered
directly to you, rather than clicking from site to site? Well now you
can, thanks to a very clever service, RSS.
There is some discussion as to what RSS stands for, but the majority
plump for 'Really Simple Syndication'. Put plainly, it allows you to
identify the content you like and have it delivered directly to you.
It takes the hassle out of staying up-to-date, by showing you the
very latest information that you are interested in.
Not all websites currently provide RSS, but it is growing rapidly in
popularity and many others, including the Guardian, New York Times and
CNN do provide it.
Why use it?1. It's 100% opt-in, meaning you only
receive the content you want and you can easily remove any feed when
you don't want it anymore.
2. It requires no e-mail address and is not delivered to
your e-mail address.
3. You get content exactly at the time it's added to the content
feed.
4. Content actually gets through and cannot be blocked by
various filters, since this is a completely different system.
5. No viruses, no trojans, no dangerous content.
In other words, RSS allows internet publishers to deliver and
distribute their content summaries and links in such a manner that
they can be read on special easy-to-use software, news
aggregators, or implemented on other web sites to deliver links
to their latest content in the most accessible format today, XML.
How it works?
1. You first need an RSS reader, which is special software
you can mostly get for free. See below.
2. You can now start adding new content feeds to your
reader. Whenever you see an image saying RSS Content Feed (or RSS,
XML, Syndicate this, etc.) you can, if this indeed is the correct
link, add the content feed in to your reader.
Click on the link and then open your RSS reader and add a new
channel. (for more instructions on how to add RSS feeds to your
reader, please see the instructions for the software you chose).
3. RSS feeds are actually just XML files that your reader
will regularly check to see if they've changed from the last time
you read them. It will then display the new links and content
summaries (in some cases even full-text versions) and allow you to
click through to read complete articles in its browser.
My favorites are
Both are very easy to set up.
A list of RSS readers:
click here
Additional explanation of RSS:
click here
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