What is RSS?

The first part of RSS is what does RSS really stand for? Well, it can be called "Really Simple Syndication" or "Rich Site Summary". But that seems to matter little as everyone just calls it "RSS".

But, what is it?

Essentially, RSS is a standardised format to publish frequently changing news. This news could include Blog entries (like this one), or news headlines or even audio or video.

For example, if you publish news on your website and this news changes frequently then you can publish the headlines of this news on other web sites (like rss Hugger) and so drive visitors to your news and therefore to your website.

[Side note to rss Hugger (11 Dec 2008). While the above concept is good, my experience with rss Hugger has been dissapointing to say the least. Had some issues on the site and have had absolutely no response any of my communications or requests for assistance. So at this stage I recommend you not to use rss Hugger.]

RSS is often included in the concept of "Social Networking" or "Web 2.0" because you can share your news.

Note: you can also show another site's news headlines on your web site. It is one way to get fresh news that someone else publishes.

Here are some references to sites that talk about RSS:

• http://www.whatisrss.com/


• http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/12/18/dive-into-xml.html


• http://www.rss-specifications.com/what-is-rss.htm


• http://rss.softwaregarden.com/aboutrss.html


• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU

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