What is it?
Topic #1
RSS
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. The keyword in that name is simple because once you understand how it works, it really is, simple. The best way to describe how it works is to get you to think about RSS like you do your subscription to your favorite newspaper, journal or magazine. You sign up for delivery and then the new issue shows up at your office or home without you having to go to the bookstore to buy it. RSS is your magazine subscriptions for all your favorite Internet content, whether that is a newspaper (NY Times), a magazine, a blog, your social networking sites or your favorite websites. When you click on the RSS icon, you are subscribing to your favorite content and it will come to you whenever new content from that Internet source is published. No more going to multiple websites just to see if something new has been posted.
How do you know when you can subscribe to content on a web page? Most site use the terms RSS or XML. Many use the orange “RSS” icon found at the top this page. Below you’ll find other example of icons used to designate the “Click here to Subscribe to this content” action. Browsers like Firefox 3 and Internet Explorer have a built in “Click here to subscribe” RSS icon in the navigation field. But most people prefer to use an Internet based RSS aggregator to herd all their RSS subscriptions into one place. Some of the more popular are Bloglines, Google Reader, Netvibes, Pageflakes and iGoogle.
So how do you get started? Below are the icons that were previously mentioned and then following those are a series of screen capture videos for a few of the more popular RSS aggregators, showing how to subscribe with them and what they look like.
Icons:
