What is RSS?

Why is RSS a good thing?

Unlike getting website updates or newsletters by email, RSS feeds give you absolute, 100% complete control over the situation. You don't have to reveal your email address. If you want to stop receiving content, you don't have to request to be “taken off the list.” One click, and the subscription is gone.

Plus, since there's no email address involved, there's no way a publisher can sell, rent or give away the means to contact you. That's right... no more spam, viruses, phishing, or identity theft. And best of all, no reason to put yourself at the mercy of the publisher's intentions.

You won't need to suffer through the legalese in the privacy policy (if there is one) looking for loopholes that will send you deeper into “inbox hell.” No more setting up dummy Hotmail or Yahoo email accounts “just in case.”

Again, if you don't like the content, you can make it disappear as fast as you can change a TV channel. With just one click.

What exactly is RSS?

RSS is simply an Internet technology standard that allows busy people to receive updates to web-based content of interest. You might have figured that much out by now. But basically, that's the essence of an RSS feed - you subscribe and then receive new content automatically in your feed reader.

If you actually want to know how RSS works at the technical level then see this technical introduction to RSS.

What is a Feed Reader?

There are a number of different approaches to feed readers:

• You may already be using a form of feed reader, and not even realize it. If you use personalized home page services like “My Yahoo” or “My MSN”, you've got RSS capabilities built in. That's how syndicated content like news, weather and stock quotes appears on your personal page. You can also add content from any blog or other website that uses RSS to provide updates.
• Other web-based tools are primarily dedicated to feed reading only. One of the most popular web-based feed readers at this point is Bloglines, and it's also free and easy to get started with.
• If you use the Firefox browser, you can also receive RSS feeds from your tool bar by using the Live Bookmarks function. Internet Explorer version 7 added a similar feature as well.
• Finally, there are desktop-based feed readers. These function somewhat like an email program for feeds. Examples include the excellent FeedDemon for Windows and NetNewsWire for the Mac.

If it sounds complicated, it's really not. And things will get even easier when the next version of Outlook integrates feed-reading capabilities. So, you'll have the same convenience that email subscriptions offered in the old days, without any of the terrible consequences of giving out your email address to potentially unscrupulous characters.

How do I subscribe to a feed?

First of all, look for the subscription or feed options (some bloggers make this difficult for some odd reason). You might see a variety of buttons (amusingly called “chicklets” ).

If the site you want to subscribe to uses FeedBurner to aid in the subscription process (like ISV Survival and many other popular sites), you'll likely see the standard RSS icon (the orange icon shown to the left of this text), which takes you to a page that will give you an array of the most popular feed readers so you can select yours, and you'll go from there.

Sometimes there will be a chicklet for your particular reader right on the blog that will take you to the appropriate subscription page. You may see these (among others):

Finally, you may also see little orange buttons that say XML or RSS. Often these chicklets will take you to a page that looks like code gibberish. In this case, you simply cut and paste the page URL from your browser window and manually paste it into your feed reader subscription function. Hopefully this last method will soon disappear, never to be seen again.

In summary: RSS solves BIG problems

So there you have it... RSS is being adopted at a phenomenal rate, because it's a good thing for everyone.

The benefit to readers is obvious. And it's good for publishers too, because we want to make sure that people feel comfortable subscribing, and that our message is not swallowed by an overzealous spam filter.