What is an RSS Reader?

2005-06-25T10:26:00.000-07:00

What is Rss Reader?

(If you're new to the web, read this article on RSS for the newbie)

An Rss reader is a program to read RSS and Atom news feeds. Rss Reader collect news in the background at user configurable intervals and warn with a little popup in the system tray that there is a new message arrived. You can click the news headline to see a short description of the news and click or open the original news web page in an Rss Reader browser or default browser window. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a format for syndicating news. Many news and web log sites support RSS by adding these pictograms as xml or rss to their web pages. Rss Reader support RSS versions 0.9x, 1.0 and 2.0 and Atom 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3. Running under Windows 98/NT/Me/2000/XP/2003.

Rss Reader can be FREEWARE, which means that you can freely copy the original installation package without any modifications and give it away to all of your friends. We don't want any responsibility for any damage to your computer caused by installing or inappropriate use of an RSS program, We are just here to help educate you on the technology.

whatisanrssreader.com

Rss Reader can be FREEWARE, which means that you can freely copy the original installation package without any modifications and give it away to all of your friends. We don't want any responsibility for any damage to your computer caused by installing or inappropriate use of an RSS program. We are just here to help educate you on the technology.

Think about all of the information
that you access on the Web on a day-to-day basis; news headlines, search
results, What's New, job vacancies, and so forth. A large amount
of this content can be thought of as a list; although it probably isn't in
HTML elements, the information is list-oriented.

Most people need to track a number
of these lists, but it becomes difficult once there are more than a handful
of sources. This is because they have to go to each page, load it, remember
how it's formatted, and find where they last left off in the list.

RSS is an XML-based format that
allows the syndication of lists of hyperlinks, along with other information,
or metadata, that helps viewers decide whether they want to follow the link.

RSS allows peoples' computers to
fetch and understand the information, so that all of the lists they're
interested in can be tracked and personalized for them. It is a format
that's intended for use by computers on behalf of people, rather than being
directly presented to them (like HTML).

To enable this, a Web site will
make an RSS feed, or channel, available, just like any other file or
resource on the server. Once a feed is available, computers can regularly
fetch the file to get the most recent items on the list. Most often, people
will do this with an aggregator, a program that manages a number of lists
and presents them in a single interface.

RSS can also be used for other
kinds of list-oriented information, such as syndicating the content itself
(often weblogs) along with the links. However, this tutorial focuses on the
use of RSS for syndication of links.

Backup now, for the newbies

What is RSS? What is an RSS Feed or Channel?

Really Simple Syndication - RSS is a
an XML format (visit: http://www.w3schools.com/xml/xml_whatis.asp for more
information on XML) designed for sharing headlines and other Web content.
Think of it as a distributable "What's New" for your site.
Originated by User Land in 1997 and subsequently used by Netscape to fill
channels for Netcenter, RSS has evolved into a popular means of sharing
content between sites (including the BBC, CNET, CNN, Disney, Forbes, Motley
Fool, Wired, Red Herring, Salon, Slashdot, ZDNet, and more). RSS solves
myriad problems webmasters commonly face, such as increasing traffic, and
gathering and distributing news. RSS can also be the basis for additional
content distribution services.

Why should I put an RSS feed on my website?

Your viewers will thank-you, and there will be more of them, because RSS
allows them to see your site without going out of their way to visit it. While this seems bad at first glance, it actually improves your site's
visibility; by making it easier for your users to keep up with your site -
allowing them to see it the way they want to - it's more likely that they'll
know when something that interests them is available on your site. For example, imagine that your company announces a new product or feature
every month or two. Without a feed, your viewers have to remember to come to
your site and see if they find anything new if they have time. If you provide
a feed for them, they can point their aggregator or other software at it, and it
will give them a link and a description of developments at your site almost as
soon as they happen.

News is similar; because there are so many sources of news on the Internet,
most of your viewers won't come to your site every day. By providing an RSS
feed, you are in front of them constantly, improving the chances that they'll
click through to an article that catches their eye.

Example of an RSS Reader: What does it look like on the website? Do
you even know it's there?

First you need to set up a Blog. A good source of a blog is blogger.com
who is owned by Google.com which may or may not give you an edge in the SEO
world. Your blog content can be read in plain English by people in the
aggregator or they can choose to visit your site. Your feed is available to
anyone who uses an aggregator, so your readership can be alerted automatically
each time you update. There are already a few million people using aggregators
and those who are actively looking for new blogs will already have one. So when
you establish a new blog, all you need to do is tell your friends who don't have
aggregators to start using one.

Making RSS Work for You

When choosing a blog host, it's important to make sure an RSS feed is
available. There are some hosts that market their offering as a blog when in
fact, with no RSS feed, all you've got is a static website that can be easily
updated.

What a ping does is announce to the aggregator that there's new material in
your blog. That gets your update alert to your readers much faster than waiting
for a spider to work.

You need to know if your host automatically pings the aggregators when you
create a new post, and which ones, if they do. For example, you can configure a blog
to automatically ping weblogs.com and blo.gs.com. TBlogs pings blo.gs.com
automatically, with no effort on your part, while Blog-City
leaves the issue entirely up to the individual, whether they want to ping or
not.

Some aggregators require prior registration with their directory to accept
your ping, so it's a good idea to register your blog with as many of the your
blog will qualify for.

When you ping an aggregator, you're placing your feed ahead of the others who
don't ping. So in order to get the widest exposure, pinging a variety of
aggregators is right now the best way to go. You can do this easily and quickly
at Dougal
Campbell's Blog Service Pinger. You enter your site's URL and check the
aggregators you want from several on the list. You need to do this each time you
update if your blog doesn't ping automatically. Note: Once you've clicked submit
at the BSP, resist the impulse to click again if it doesn't respond immediately.
Another click sends another ping and you'll end up with an error message.

RSS Syntax

RSS defines an XML grammar (a set of HTML-like tags) for sharing news. Each
RSS text file contains both static information about your site, plus dynamic
information about your new stories, all surrounded by matching start and end
tags.

Each story is defined by an <item> tag, which contains a headline
TITLE, URL, and DESCRIPTION. Here's an example:


<item>
  <title>RSS Resource</title>
  <link>http://www.yourrssreader.com/authoring/languages/xml/rss/</link>
  <description>Defined in XML, the Rich Site Summary format has
  quietly become a dominant format for distributing headlines on the Web.
  Our list of links gives you the tools/tips/tutorials you need to get
  started using RSS</description>
</item>

Each RSS channel can contain up to 15 items and is easily parsed using
Perl or other open source software. It's easy to create your own RSS
channel with free open source scripts - all Web based.

Once you've created and validated your RSS text file, register it at the
various aggregators, and watch the hits roll in. Any site can now grab and
display your feed regularly, driving traffic your way. Update your RSS file,
and all the external sites that subscribe to your feed will be automatically
updated. What can be easier?

What the RSS Feed looks like on your webpage:

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What is Rss reader for and how does it work?