RSS Terms and Definitions

Previous  Top  Next

What does RSS mean?

Who knows what it means. There are many definitions but all agree it is a "protocol" - which means RSS is a common set of rules for communication. It is a format that web sites and content producers use to send updated headlines directly to your RSS reader. Each headline is a brief summary of a larger article that is linked to the headline. You can scan the headlines and choose which of the more in-depth articles you might want to read.

The advantages of RSS to you are:

·

You do not need to point your browser to web sites and visit each to obtain information - it comes to you.

·

Updates can be scheduled as downloads that happen in the background.

·

You do not need to delete old information. New feeds automatically over-write old feeds.

·

Information is usually displayed as new to old.

An Aggregator

Another techie-type name for an RSS reader.


RSS Syndication

Syndication refers to the underlying principle of RSS. It means you don't have to visit each site individually to see what's new - you simply scan headlines or brief article summaries and click to read the full text. Some refer to this as subscribing.

A Syndication feed is a news feed or RSS feed. The terms all mean the same.