|
What Are RSS Feeds
Copyright 2004 Sharon Housley
What Are RSS
Feeds?
RSS Feeds
RSS also known as rich site summary or real
simply syndication, arrived on the scene a number of years ago, but was
only recently embraced by webmasters as a means to effectively syndicate
content. RSS Feeds provide webmasters and content providers an avenue to
provide concise summaries to prospective readers. Thousands of
commercial web sites and blogs now publish content summaries in an
RSS feed. Each item in the feed typically contains a headline; article
summary and link back to the online article.
Benefit to the Webmaster
As the web has become more crowded webmasters have been
striving to
provide fresh and up to date content for their website visitors. Many
webmasters have discovered they can easily utilize the information in RSS
feeds to provide fresh web content.
RSS feeds are composed in XML,
which is a very simple
markup language. Similar to HTML, XML uses tags to
identify
fields. Webmasters can easily parse the RSS feed and dynamically
create web pages that contain headlines and
summaries. The feeds will
continuously update, supplying a steady stream of automatically generated
fresh content.
RSS allows webmasters to:
1.) Provide fresh and
relevant content on their website, which encourages users to return.
2.) Constantly changing content means that search engine spiders will
visit more frequently.
3.) Automate content delivery.
The
benefits of RSS feeds are not limited to webmasters, surfers too benefit from
the technology as well.
Benefit to Web Surfers
The beauty of RSS is
that readers can quickly scan headlines (titles) and read articles of
interest. Because the information is condensed and provided in a
single location users can generally review more information in a shorter
time frame. Additional information is only a click away. Best of all readers
choose the feeds they wish to see, there is no spam with RSS. If you are not
completely thrilled with the content appearing in a feed simply remove it
from the newsreader. The technology is a pull technology rather than push
technology, meaning the content is not forced on the consumers, who pull the
content they want to
see.
RSS allows for users to:
1.) Easily
locate information.
2.) Read condensced information or 'soundbytes'
with clearly marked and dated topic material.
3.) Classify and
categorize information in an easy to navigate manner.
4.) Maximize
their time without having to deal with spam.
RSS feeds can be viewed in
a news aggregator or reader, which constantly updates and shows unread feeds.
I found the functionality of the newsreaders to be similar to a simple
email client. Consumers generally enter the URL of any RSS feeds that
interest them. Topics with a common theme can be segregated into related
groups.
I highly recommend FeedDemon http://www.feeddemon.com by BradSoft as a
newsreader. FeedDemon is extremely easy to
use and allows for quick scanning
and indexing of topics.
FeedDemon allows users to quickly scan, sort and
scroll through headline and article summaries, while viewing the actual
content in a split screen web browser.
Finding Topic Specific Relevant
Feeds
In order to find feeds that provide niche information users can
search Feedster. Feedster http://www.feedster.com is a rapidly
growing news search engine that indexes information contained within RSS
feeds. Searches for topic specific feeds can be conducted and feeds can be
retrieved for syndication.
Benefit to Content Developer
While the
benefits to users and webmasters are clear the
distribution opportunities
made available to content developers should not be overlooked. Information
contained in the RSS feed can be easily syndicated, increasing content
distribution and reach.
RSS allows for content developers to:
1.)
Increase exposure in niche markets.
2.) Communicate with user bases and
reach potential
customers via an alternate communication method.
3.)
Disseminate relevant information.
4.) Define themselves as an industry
expert.
5.) Automate content delivery.
RSS has effectively
standardized the format for content delivery and has effectively defined the
accepted standard for content distribution and syndication. RSS will
likely rival email as a means of content distribution in another few
years. The shear simplicity makes the technology very appealing.
The
distribution potential, while albeit difficult to measure, is still
attractive to all parties making the likelihood that RSS popularity will only
continue to grow.
RSS Feeds to Try
Feeds exist for almost any topic
consider trying these feeds out by entering the url in your feed
reader:
Small Business Feed - small business tips and news
http://www.small-business-software.net/blog-feed.xml
Software
Marketing Blog Summary - software marketing and
online news
http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/blog-feed.xml
SMS,
Wireless Messaging Related News. - news related to
telecom, wireless industry
and NotePage's software
http://www.notepage.net/blog-feed.xml
Free
Content Articles - collection of free content articles, updates when new
article is released.
http://www.small-business-software.net/article-feed.xml
Software Marketing News - news related to software
conferences,
awards, software development and marketing
http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/feed.xml
About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for
NotePage, Inc.
http://www.notepage.net
a company specializing in
alphanumeric paging, SMS and wireless messaging
software solutions. Other sites by Sharon can be found at http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com
, and http://www.small-business-software.net
|
