An Insight into RSS and Web Feeds

July 10, 2009 – 1:47 am

All of you must have heard about web feeds and RSS but many of you might not aware that exactly what these terms mean. Simply put, a web feed is a data format used to syndicate (or distribute) your website’s content, allowing users to subscribe to these content updates. Web feeds allows subscribers to be aware of any addition/update of content or articles on your website without actually visiting the website check the updates. This is the same concept as subscribing to a newsletter. News websites and blogs are common sources of webfeeds.

Web feeds are often XML based documents and RSS (Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary) is one of the most commonly used formats of web feeds. Another format called Atom format is a bit outdated nowadays. There are three main components involved in web feed subscription mechanism -

Feed: The article or content which has been added on the website

Feed Generator: Software which generates feeds. A typical website needs RSS feed generator software integrated in it where as a Wordpress Blog has a built in RSS feed generator. An Orange web feed icon in the address bar indicates that web feeds are available for subscription.

Feed Reader: Also known Feed Aggregator, this is a program which allows users to view feed. It is the feed reader which checks and ‘pulls’ the feed rather than feed generator ‘pushing’ the feed into the reader.

One of the most common forms of subscribing to RSS feeds is by Live Bookmarks. To use these, just click on the orange feed icon address bar of your browser and choose Live Bookmarks from the drop down menu. This will palce dynamic bookmark in Bookmarks Menu of your web browser, containing links to latest feeds. These links will keep on updating as new posts are added and old links disappear from live bookmarks. If you are using Mozilla Firefox, check ‘Bookmarks Toolbar’ in your bookmarks menu to view the recently subscribed feeds.

Apart from live bookmarks, you can also subscribe to webfeeds by websites such as iGoogle, MyYahoo, Google Reader or Bloglines. All you have to do is select Google (or Yahoo) from the drop down menu after you have clicked on feed button. Then, select Add To Google HomePage or Add To Google Reader. A gadget containing feeds from the website will appear on you iGoogle page if you select the former.

Though web feeds have similarity with email newsletters, they have certain advantages which make them preferred method of subscription. First, you don’t have to share your email id, thus reducing the risk of spam and virus attack. Secondly, rather than sending an “unsubscribe” request, you can simply remove the feed. All these features make RSS and webs feeds most popular technique of syndicating website content. So don’t forget to subscribe to feeds for our RedAlkemi Blogosphere to keep you updated with latest informative articles.