Introduction to RSS (Real-Simple-Sydnication)

Posted on September 29, 2006 by Eric Hebert
Filed Under RSS, Internet Marketing 101 |

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 RSS, short for “Real Simple Syndication”, is a technology that is actually been around for a little while, but has until recently hid from the mainstream. RSS is an XML-scripted programming language that “feeds” a webpage into a RSS reader, which is a desktop software program very similar to Microsoft Outlook or other email programs. The technology works very similar to the way email works, but with less fuss for both the reader and more importantly the writer.

First, you will need to find a free RSS reader. These vary from software programs to services offered from your major web portals like Yahoo & Google, or you can even incorporate them into your email client software like the highly recommended Mozilla Thunderbird. All pretty much do the same thing, which is to constantly check a RSS XML web page feed to see if it has been updated; if so, the software downloads the page to the RSS reader, where you can access the information without jumping on the internet or searching pages.

Let’s take a blog for example. Let’s say you’re reading the news on you’re favorite blog. Now usually you have to get online and go to the blogs’ URL to see if it has been updated, which can be a little frustrating if you find it hasn’t been updated. Here’s where the efficiency of RSS comes into play. Most blogs on the net have the option of “subscribing” to that particular blog through its RSS feed. You usually see a tiny orange box that says “RSS” accompanied by other major feed aggregator services. Just add the blog feed to your RSS reader, and bingo, you’re all set. The RSS reader will check the blog regularly for updates; when it does update, the RSS reader downloads that page into the reader for you to enjoy. This syndication of information helps it get to the viewer quicker than ever before. Take for example the RSS reader used here at evolvor. Our blog roll (a list of every blog that is read) all runs through the RSS reader, and anytime a blog is updated, we know about it. It would take us a lot longer to go online every hour and check a website to see if it was updated; the software does that for us, saving us time to actually read the blog posts. Now all we need is a software program to actually read the blog for us!

RSS allows us more time to spend working on what we do best, and at the same time keeping us informed in any category of information we want. Imagine a potential customer that subscribes to your blog through the technology offered by RSS: You literally have the power of reaching that customer not just every couple of days or every hour, but every ten minutes! That kind of communication potential will only assist you in promoting your products and services. Make sure your blog is set-up for RSS today, and get a reader for yourself so you too can begin enjoying the ease of RSS feeds; it’s like having your own personal news station right on your desktop.


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2 Responses to “Introduction to RSS (Real-Simple-Sydnication)”

  1. Adding New RSS Feature to Blog | Evolvor Media on January 7th, 2008 11:36 am

    […] been playing around with the idea of aggregating other music related content using RSS here at the evolvor blog, and I’m going to be testing out a Wordpress plugin that does just […]

  2. Eric Hebert on March 14th, 2008 1:48 pm

    UPDATE: Use Bloglines or Google reader!

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