RSS, RSS, RSS… you hear the constant chant, but do you really know what the heck it means?
RSS stands for ‘Real Simple Sydication‘ and is a way for webmasters to publish (or ‘feed') new information posted on their site to feed subscribers. A single item will typically include a headline, a snippet of content and a link to the website.
Benefits of Using RSS
The benefit to feed subscribers is that it allows them to stay informed of rapidly changing content on a multitude of sites without having to sign up for individual newsletters or having to visit each site separately.
Most webmasters make it easy to sign up for their feeds, with easily recognizable icons and links such as:
There are many RSS feed readers, also known as ‘aggregators‘, to choose from. I started off with ‘FeedReader‘, which is a freeware application for Windows, and now use Google's reader.
The primary benefit for webmasters who syndicate their content with RSS feeds is that feed subscribers are automatically notified as new items are published. Making RSS feeds available to readers typically increases readership and site traffic.