What is RSS?

Got intimidated by this orange button? You may have seen it elsewhere and wonder what it is. So I am going to write a simple post to explain what RSS is and how you can use it as a powerful tool. Don't worry about the technical terms as I will keep it as simple as it can.

What is RSS
According to Wikipedia.org,

RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format.An RSS document (which is called a "feed", "web feed", or "channel") includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds can be read using software called an "RSS reader", "feed reader", or "aggregator", which can be web-based, desktop-based, mobile device or any computerized Internet-connected device. A standardized XML file format allows the information to be published once and viewed by many different programs. The user subscribes to a feed by entering the feed's URI (often referred to informally as a "URL", although technically, those two terms are not exactly synonymous) into the reader or by clicking an RSS icon in a browser that initiates the subscription process. The RSS reader checks the user's subscribed feeds regularly for new work, downloads any updates that it finds, and provides a user interface to monitor and read the feeds.

RSS formats are specified using XML, a generic specification for the creation of data formats. Although RSS formats have evolved since March 1999, the RSS icon ("the above orange button") first gained widespread use between 2005 and 2006.

What does the initial "RSS" stands for?
According to Wikipedia.org,

The initials "RSS" are used to refer to the following formats:

* Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91)
* RDF Site Summary (RSS 0.9 and 1.0)
* Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0)

Confusion between Web feed and RSS
According to Wikipedia.org,

The term "RSS" (Really Simple Syndication) is still sometimes used to refer to web feeds in general, including web feeds with a format different from RSS. For example, the Blogspace description of using web feeds in an aggregator is headlined "RSS info" and "RSS readers" even though its first sentence makes clear the inclusion of the Atom format: "RSS and Atom files provide news updates from a website in a simple form for your computer. "

Wait, Sheng Loong, you are making me more confused with the facts and technical terms from Wikipedia!
Yes, I know. If you possess good comprehension skill, you should now understand what RSS is. However, many people like me cannot grasp all the above explanation in a short period. Therefore, I embed a little video here which explains what RSS is in plain English. (Sheng Loong, you should have shown this video earlier!) Yes, I know. Anyway, enjoy the following video.

There is another video which teaches you how to subscribe to RSS feed easily using Google Reader, one of the most popular web-based RSS reader.

I hope you have understood what RSS is by now. If so, please subscribe to my blog RSS feed by locating the cute RSS button on the right sidebar. I am using Feedburner as my RSS aggregator and management tool. You do not have to know what Feedburner is at the moment but I might write a post on Feedburner next time. Stay tune! */