My Little Corner of the Web

The Moleskin is the personal web site of Kelsey Ruger and is a collection of creative work, thoughts and lessons.

An Introduction to RSS Feeds

August 20th, 2005

Have you seen the little RSS image or XML image images popping up all over the Web? Well, these images aren’t just for decoration. They indicate when a site owner has made information available for syndication. Syndication means that certain information on the site is updated regularly and can be re-published or read by others through a technology known as an RSS or XML feed. These feeds can contain information that identifies news articles, web log posts or anything else the owner wants to make available to others. Think of RSS or XML feeds as a digital magazine subscription. They make it easy for you to subscribe to information you find interesting or useful.

The great thing about syndicated content is that it allows you to cut down on the time it takes you to review your favorite sites or news sources. You do this by using a program called a news feed reader to automatically check your favorite feeds and keep you up to date about what is going on each site. Some news readers even have the ability to pull all of the content across so that you don’t have to visit the web site to get the content.

Sound interesting? Well you can try this out for yourself by installing or subscribing to one of the many news readers available. Here is a list of popular newsreaders and aggregators from the Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Comments for “An Introduction to RSS Feeds”

  • The Moleskin » Will Web 2.0 affect Search Marketing?

    October 5th, 2005

    […] An Introduction To RSS Feeds […]

  • Rachel Kosoy

    October 15th, 2005

    Hi Kelsey,
    I like the site! it is a great learning tool for me. i read about the RSS Feeds adn tried to use/register? for one, but got stuck. you’ll have to explain it to me more when we speak. i’d love to be able to subscribe to your site.

    let’s talk this week. maybe i can come out for lunch one day.
    Rachel

  • The Moleskin

    September 20th, 2006

    […] Formulate a 30 second elevator description. I have my own description of RSS, but as I started writing this I realized that it really wasn’t that good. Why? Even though simple, my description is probably still a tad too technical. Remember RSS is an enabling technology not the final answer. Today I would probably just describe it as a notification system that allows you to put the end user in control of when and how they receive information. Formulate a quick 30 second pitch to introduce people to the concept. […]

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