RSS: What it is and how to use it.

RSS means "Really Simple Syndication". It is a means of gathering information on the web and having it brought to you rather than you having to go to it. It is a program that does so through two steps, which we will go over soon. It is an amazing resource for large business and broadcasting companies who need information on a daily bases but who otherwise would have to do a lot of research to gather the information themselves.

RSS was originally designed by Netscape to gather headlines to portals to stream through news quickly. Netscape however did not stick to developing portals and RSS technology has now been picked up by three separate companies, Userland, RSS-DEV, and Working Group. Which technology is currently best on the market? That depends on you and your needs.

RSS 0.91 was developed by Userland after Netscape had first developed the technology. RSS 0.91 is extremely basic and because of so being, it is extremely simple to use. For just your basic RSS needs, this is a good and a widely chosen one.

RSS 1.0 has the advantage of being offered both by Userland and RSS_Dev. Thus there are two companies who offer and control the product often because the cause for more options and better quality product.

RSS 2.0 Was also developed by Userland and has the advantage of being the newest system to the market. It will provide you with a great RSS system with the most updated software available.

RSS had two parts; with out both parts you will not be able to run RSS. The first part is called the, "RSS Aggregator". The Aggregator is also called, "The Reader." The purpose of the aggregator is to gather information and to make it available to you in headline form. With the aggregator you can decide what is of interest to you and set it to gather only that information. They nice thing about this is that information is constantly coming to you, without you having to search the web to find it.

The second part of the RSS is called it's, "Feed." The feed is specially designed to read a programming language called, XML. What you will do is set up the news aggregator to read the feeds that you are interested in and as they become available they will be delivered directly into your inbox.

RSS programs, once purchased, need simply only to be installed and the program will set up itself. You will need only to add in the information you are looking for and possible add it to your URL.

You will see RSS being used at many news sites, as well as popular entertainment sites. They are marked by a small orange box that is labeled, "RSS."

RSS is a great way to cut out the middle man. Rather than your company having to hire someone who is constantly searching the web for new information, news, or entertainment, you can simply set a program to do it for you (much like you can do with many things these days).It used to be to gather news you would have to contact the local agencies to see what stories they were reporting, which ones they could share, and which ones needed, following up on.

With the RSS program you can cut out those phone calls, emails, and others means of contacting the broadcasting world, and simply set up a reader that will feed them to you. This is great for posing up to date information and giving your readers a reliable source they can trust in.