Millions of news and information sources have turned to making their information available in the form of feeds. The nice part about it is that we do not need to learn or understand the underlying complex technology in order to use and benefit from this new technology. The service that is provided has been made really simple for us to use. That is why it was named "really simple syndication".
Basically, people and organizations create information feeds. Users decide which feeds they want to see on a regular basis and add them to a feed reader. The information feeds exist on servers on the web and are available on an ongoing basis. The feeds themselves contain summaries of what is available and links to all the details if we want to see more.
These feeds are commonly known as "syndicated feeds" or "news feeds". Feed readers or aggregators as they are called, allow us to decide and be highly selective in choosing what we want to see and whether we want to see it. They also simplify organizing the information.
A major benefit of these feeds is to enable us to cope with the enormous volumes of information that are available from different sources both on the web and through a variety of other media. Much of the information we receive today is delivered without our being asked whether we want to see what is being delivered. Even our email systems are flooded with emails from people who want us to read what they want to tell us. Usually they are trying to sell us something. In addition, the web is now coming alive with new types of information sources such as newsfeeds, weblogs, blogs and forums.
We the users can manage these feeds with a feed reader or aggregator. The readers are referred to as aggregators because they enable us to filter and subscribe to only the information we want to see. The simplest type of aggregator is server based. There is no software program to install on your computer. You just subscribe to the service in order to use the aggregator system.
The next simplest type is software that you can install on top of your browser. Then there are standalone programs that you install directly on your computer. There are even aggregators that can be installed on top of an email system. Which type of aggregator you choose depends in part on how much time you want to spend managing the technology that is delivering the information to you.
The most complicated part of this information service is trying to understand the various technologies that are used today to build, maintain, deliver and use information feeds. Again, the nice thing about it is that we really do not need to concern ourselves with the underlying technical details. Although standards that were developed a few years ago are still in use today, many aggregators can handle all the different standards and versions including the newest ones.
The most technical part that we cannot avoid in using this information technology is the terminology and jargon surrounding it. As mentioned already, one of the common standards for feeds is called "really simple syndication" or RSS for short. To complicate things, there are different versions of RSS. There is also a newer standard called Atom. The language used to create an RSS feed is XML. It all gets very technical very quickly and does not add much to our use of the technology. It is not necessary to learn the XML coding language or understand the different versions of RSS or the benefits of Atom. Unfortunately, the acronyms and jargon exists and make something that is really simple seem to be much more complicated than it really is. In all things, the less terminology and jargon the better.
Some sites on the web that provide information feeds commonly identify them with an XML icon. Others just point to a link that is identified as an RSS feed. The XML icon or link is there in order to provide the address of the feed. You need to add the address of a feed to an aggregator in order to subscribe to it on a regular basis. Once you subscribe to a feed, you can see the information that is currently available. Whenever the feed is updated, the latest information is made available to your aggregator.
RSS feeds are produced and maintained using builder software that automatically generates a feed file in the appropriate standard. The feed itself usually carries only summary information and a link to more detail. The detail can exist in almost any format such as news feeds, weblogs, blogs, web pages, forums and even audio. Each feed is broken down into items of information that some aggregators can filter depending on whether you want to see particular items or not.
The feed files themselves are created and then stored and maintained on the originating web sites or servers. People and organizations that provide feeds usually add them to one or more directories of feeds that are maintained on the web. The directories help us to search for feeds to add to feed aggregators. The online aggregator services maintain their own directories and greatly simplify the use of the technology.
And that is pretty much what really simple syndication is all about. It really is very simple.
Return to the Really Simple Syndication Table of Contents
| 
