What is RSS?

There are several definitions of RSS - RDF Site Summary, Rich Site Summary, and the most popular one, Really Simple Syndication. Regardless of the definitions, what is RSS anyway? RSS is a lightweight XML format designed for sharing headlines and other Web content.

Originated by UserLand in 1997 and subsequently used by Netscape to fill channels for Netcenter, RSS has evolved into a popular means of sharing content between sites (including the BBC, CNET, CNN, Forbes, Wired, Red Herring, Salon,Slashdot, ZDNet, and more). RSS solves myriad problems webmasters commonly face, such as increasing traffic, and gathering and distributing news. RSS can also be the basis for additional content distribution services.

But it's not just for news. Pretty much anything that can be broken down into discrete items can be syndicated via RSS: the "recent changes" page of a wiki, a changelog of CVS checkins, even the revision history of a book. An RSS-aware program can check the feed for changes and react to the changes in an appropriate way. RSS-aware programs called news aggregators are popular in the weblogging community. Many weblogs make content available in RSS.

There are several versions of RSS out there, which can be a bit confusing! How about these: 0.90 (owned by Netscape); 0.91, 0.92, 0.93, 0.94 (UserLand); 1.0 (RSS-DEV working group); 2.0 (UserLand).

(from various sources on the net)

© 2004 NewsFlash/NVoy team - Atlantis Development Studio