The white squiggles in the orange box below appear to be popping up more often on web sites and billboard advertisements. I’ve never quite understood what RSS is used for so I Googled it to find out and I’ve decided to provide an explanation here in my blog for those of you who aren’t in the know (like me!)
RSS stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication’ according to Wikipedia.com. An RSS is a series of web feed formats used to publish blogs, news headlines, audio files and videos that are frequently updated. RSS is beneficial to readers who want to subscribe to updates from a site or host feeds from different sites in one place. Users can actually subscribe to a web feed by clicking on the RSS icon. The YouTube video below provides a good visual description of an RSS. The video explains RSS as a simple method for having news and updates sent directly to you versus going out to search for new information.
The example used in the video is the option of using Netflix versus going to a video store. With Netflix, you chose what video you’d like to receive and it’s sent directly to you versus leaving your house and traveling to the video store only to find that there aren’t any new releases on the shelf. This is the perfect analogy for Really Simple Syndication, or RSS. I think they’ve even convinced me to sign up for a reader. It’s pretty much a no brainer in terms of obtaining and maintaining up to date information from your favorite sites. There’s even an option for you to click on the RSS icon for updates to my blog!
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May 12, 2010 at 6:31 am
eli
Thanks for your information and providing this tutorial on obtaining info from my favorite websites! It will be so much quicker for me to do it this way!