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I’ve been asked “what’s an RSS feed” numerous times over the past few months. While I am surprised at how many blog owners are in the dark about RSS feeds, I have to keep reminding myself that most people have better things to do than decipher random geek-talk like RSS, EULA, etc.
The acronym, RSS, has several translations, including “Rich Site Summary” and “Really Simple Syndication.” I realize you still might be thinking, “ok that’s nice, but what does THAT do?” Don’t worry, I’m about to do my best to explain.
An RSS feed is like a stock ticker, but for your favorite blogs or websites. Instead of having to go all over the place to check and see which blogs have been updated, you can rely on a blog’s RSS feed to “update you” when there is new content.
Many people use RSS feed readers to keep up to date with their favorite blogs. It’s almost like a personalized e-newspaper. You get to decide the content, and whenever you want to read your news, it will be all in one place (rather than in 25 different places online).
What sites have RSS feeds? Well, online news websites have RSS feeds, so do many sports sites and weather websites. You’ll find RSS feeds on the majority of blogs; even sites like twitter have RSS feeds. So, your “RSS newspaper” can contain whatever information is pertinent to you. It’s the ultimate customization.
An RSS feed is not stylized and “pretty” like a typical website. Its sole purpose is to provide that content for viewing in a feed reader or elsewhere. Take a peek at my feed: learnwithbetsy.com/feed. See? It cuts through the frills and just lets you get right to the content.
RSS feed readers are a dime a dozen these days. Outlook has a feed reader built into its interface, and you can install plugins for your web browser too. I’m sure there’s “an app for that” on the iPhone. I’ve listed a few popular feed web-based feed readers below:
How do you tell if a site has an RSS feed? Well, you can look for the words “RSS” or “subscribe” — or, you might see a little orange button (look at the top of the sidebar on this page). If you’re looking to add the RSS feed icon to your website, check out FeedIcons.com.
So, there you have it. If you’re still confused about what an RSS feed does, try taking a peek at the video below.
