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This post is about Really Simple Syndication, more commonly known by its abbreviation, RSS. We’ll explain what RSS is, how it works and its main uses for content syndication.
What does RSS stand for?
RSS is a web-based news feed that enables internet users and certain types of software to access website updates and other online content in a standardised format that computers can understand. If a user subscribes to an RSS feed, they can keep up to date with news from a number of different websites without having to visit them constantly. This is made possible by a news aggregator, a tool that monitors the subscribed websites for new content. News aggregators, sometimes referred to as RSS readers, can be installed on computers, smartphones, and both mobile and desktop web browsers.
Websites can use RSS feeds to syndicate regularly updated content, such as new blog posts, the latest news, and the most recent episodes of video or audio content, such as webinars, TV programs or podcasts.
An RSS document collects a range of information about the content it tracks, including the web address, the publication date, relevant metadata and the author’s name. It also contains the title of the content and a summary of the accompanying text. This data is consolidated into a standard RSS-formatted XML file.
Using XML and text formats
The standard XML format is vital, as it allows users to subscribe to many websites whilst ensuring that all information received via RSS is in a consistent and easily understandable format. XML is widely used on the internet, as it enables software to exchange text data.
Whilst the software communicates using XML, it presents the actual news feed seen and read by the user in a clear, simple text format. XML ensures that this text is formatted in the same way for every single website update received by the user. This text format contains relevant information about the content, including the title, meta description, text summary and – most importantly – a link to the URL of the web page containing the new content, so that the user can read a post, watch a video, play a song or listen to a podcast.
RSS feeds and formats
Although RSS has been around since 1999, it gained widespread popularity in the mid-2000s, when internet usage became increasingly widespread. News aggregator tools are designed to present RSS feed data to subscribers in the format mentioned above. The actual sharing of web content is known as web syndication.
Internet users can subscribe to an RSS feed by entering its URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) into a reader, or – more commonly – by clicking on the news feed icon in their web browser. Once this has been done, the RSS reader continuously monitors the user’s feeds for new updates and, if authorised, can automatically download them.
In the 2000s, the most common way to receive RSS feeds was via email. This is still possible, and many people still rely on email for RSS. However, technological advances mean that receiving RSS feeds via email is becoming less popular. Instead, most users now prefer to be notified of new content via email subscriptions, push notifications and text messages.
How can websites use RSS feeds?
If you run a website, RSS feeds give you the opportunity to share your content with a much wider audience. People don’t simply have to visit your website to find out about your content; they can also receive information about it via email, web portals and newsreaders. Thanks to RSS, your content can also be distributed via widgets on other websites or through other types of applications. You can see news feeds of this kind, for example, embedded in Windows, search engines and smartphone apps, or featured on the websites of online magazines and newspapers, which use them to provide additional content and generate revenue when users click on them.
By having your website included in RSS feeds, your content can be syndicated across a wide range of channels, enabling you to reach a new audience and drive more visitors to your site. It also ensures that those who like your content or find it useful stay up to date, and reminds them when you’ve published something new. This is why RSS feeds are so important to many large companies and brands, as well as music labels, bloggers and podcasters.