Internet
RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines, and podcasts in a standardized format. An RSS document contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text.
RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with web sites in an automated manner that can be piped into special programs or filtered displays. The benefit of RSS is the aggregation of content from multiple Web sources in one place. RSS content can be read using software called an “RSS reader”, “feed reader” or an “aggregator”, which can be web-based or desktop-based.
RSS is a text-based format, a type of XML. You should know that only because often RSS files are often labeled as XML. RSS version 1.0 is also RDF (whatever), which, again, is important only because an RSS file may be labeled as RDF. RSS files (which are also called RSS feeds or channels) simply contain a list of items. Usually, each item contains a title, summary, and a link to a URL (e.g. a web page). Other information, such as the date, creator’s name, etc., may also be available. The most common use for RSS files is for news and other reverse-chronologically ordered websites like blogs. For example, this particular page on Fagan Finder has a changes log, which is also available in RSS format. An item’s description may contain all of a news article, blog post, etc., or just an extract or summary. The item’s link will usually point to the full content.
