What are RSS feeds?

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What are RSS feeds, that is the question that many people are asking and to try to answer in this article. Then leaving by a simple definition: RSS is l 'stands for Really Simple Syndication, or an XML-based format for the dissemination of content on the Internet. L 'RSS has become undoubtedly the most popular format of last year' s export and distribution of Web content. The documents Rss, also feeds are an effective tool for sites with frequently updated as news. If you are looking for news and news on topics of interest are half quick and easy to follow a large number of information sources. It is particularly interesting to note that this format through the barrier of the difference between the average for its simplicity, the information may find different representations on a PC, on a screen reader on a handheld or home phone. The great spread of RSS comes from 'adoption of the new format by the main sites of information from content providers and lately from many blogs. More and more are sites that have RSS feeds on their pages. More often they are blogs, forums, newspapers, news agencies. Even on business sites are beginning to notarne presence in the public sections frequently update to the visitor interested.

Another key element that made the popular RSS regards the speed with which they are distributed content and updates in real time. Using a software aggregator is possible to follow dozens of RSS feeds without having to from time to time to open all its sites. L 'basic idea is to create channels that represent information in a simple and easily readable. To this are used XML documents that follow the rules defined by different DTD (Document definition of data) prepared for this format.

The RSS Feed can be acquired on your computer through the appropriate software, feed reader, or aggregation services on-line as MyYahoo, Google Reader or Feedburner. A feed reader is simply a software capable of downloading an RSS feed only stating the URL of the feed, make parse and display the content according to user preferences. An aggregator (in English: feed reader) is a program capable of downloading an RSS feed (it is enough that you indicate in the program 's URL of the feed), perform the parsing and display the content according to preferences.

Often feed reader are equipped with some advanced features: for example, are able to automatically detect whether the feed manufacturer has made updates to feed itself, download at regular intervals. In this way the user can be informed in almost real time when a site of interest has been updated. There are many feed reader in circulation: some are stand-alone applications, others work as plug-in inside other programs such as extensions for e-mail programs or Web browser.

Here you can see a very well made video that explains in simple things are the RSS feeds:

The three formats are used in absolute 's RSS 0.91, 1.0 and 2.0. 0.91 The format has evolved losing some limitations in the version 0.92 and was further refined in version 2.0. In fact, today we are dealing with at least three different "dialects":

• RSS 0.91: The oldest among the standards in use today, directed evolution of the format originally used by Netscape. In some cases it is preferred to use the following RSS 0.92;
• RSS 2.0: released by Userland in 2002, is the 'trend of 0.92 format, which inherits the simplicity, but that adds support for additional modules;
• RSS 1.0 is the official format of the W3C, conforming to RDF, modular and extensible.

Who produces content for distribution in RSS format is forced to choose which version to use or, as happens in most cases, to export their content in all available formats.

Despite the different implementations of different versions, the documents RSS all share the same basic structure, which provides:

• <channel> an element, which contains information on the source of content (in the case of an online newspaper could contain the name of the head, the date of publication, copyright information, etc.).
• a number of elements <item>, each of which corresponds to a single content item (eg. the article by a newspaper) and it has all the information (title, text, name, etc.).

As the deployment, we should not think that the current outdated versions are missing. I feed in RSS 0.91 or 0.92 are used primarily for their simplicity and the fact that they are more than enough for a syndication base, reduced to essentials. Who needs to worry about the presence of opposing proposals? Certainly not the consumers who use the RSS feeds with news aggregator: these are able to read quietly and without problems all available formats.

Personally, I am convinced that RSS feeds are a powerful and versatile tool for conveying content on the Web and are the most simple and straightforward to follow a large number of information sources essential for all those who sail in search of news and news on the subjects their interest.

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