What Is RSS?
Cabrini Health offers several RSS feeds so what is RSS and what are its benefits?
The Benefits of RSS
Unlike getting website updates or news by email, RSS feeds give you 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 your 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.
This means no more spam, viruses, phishing, or identity theft.
Again, if you don’t like the content, you can make it disappear with just one click.
RSS also means you don't have to visit a site to see if there is new content, all new content is delivered to you in on place.
What is RSS?
RSS is a simply an Internet technology that allows busy people to receive updates to web-based content without having to go to a site. This list of updates is called a feed.
Basically, that’s the essence of an RSS feed – you subscribe (for free) and then receive new content from your favourite sites automatically in your feed reader.
What is a feed reader?
You may already be using a form of feed reader, and not even realise it. If you use personalized home page services like Google, 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 site 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.
For more info on getting started with Bloglines, read Bloglines (and aggregators in general) from Carson McComas of WorkHappy.net.
If you use , you can also receive RSS feeds from your tool bar by using the Live Bookmarks function. Internet Explorer also offers a built in RSS reader.
Finally, there are desktop-based feed readers. These function somewhat like an email program for feeds. Examples include Newsgator and Feed Demon.
If it sounds complicated, it’s really not. Outlook now offers integrated 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 Copyblogger and many other popular sites), you’ll likely see the standard RSS icon, 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. This is the standard RSS icon:
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 box.
Hopefully this last method will soon disappear, never to be seen again.
RSS Solves Big Problems
In summary: RSS solves BIG problems.
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 will make it through.
Credit
This information is based on an article on RSS by CopyBlogger.
RSS Feeds