What is an RSS Feed?
What is RSS? 
RSS stands for Real
Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0).
It is a conventional, rather widely accepted way of publishing or
exchanging information on the Internet, which keeps the data's meaning between
applications.
RSS is a way for any resource available on the Web to be
qualified by its metadata (information that describes
information). For instance, an article is usually described by its author,
title, abstract, publishing date, copyright, while an item available for
purchase on an on-line shopping site is better represented by its description,
price, and availability.
Because this qualification is independent from the
object it qualifies, RSS can represent information about anything available on
the Web, although it is current and mainly used to publish articles on-line.
How to Read a RSS Feed?
An RSS Feed is basically an RSS-formatted file available on a
web site, ready to be retrieved by a tool acting as a reader. This reader can
be either a standalone or web-based application:
Standalone readers:
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Web-based readers:
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A Brief History of RSS
Netscape gave birth to RSS as Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.90) in
1999.
The World Wide Web Consortium
(W3C) standardized it later in 2000 as RDF
Site Summary (RSS
1.0). Resource
Description Framework (RDF) was the initial language for
qualifying any resource available on the Web by its metadata.
Then in 2003, the Berkman
Center for Internet & Society at Harvard
Law School released Real Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0), which
took its name from the specific application and extension of the RDF
Site Summary protocol to the process of publishing on-line content
information, mainly, but not restricted to, articles and discussion messages.
