RSS feeds is the way of delivering web contents or blogs on regular basis to subscribers. It is short for rich site summary. It is used by many sites, online publishers and weblogs in delivering their content to their subscribers. The most convenient way for web users to keep track of the sites they are interested in is the RSS feeds. This is because every time there is a new content, the subscriber is automatically fed with the content. Therefore, you will be notified of new announcement, news or anything about the site by simply subscribing using the RSS feed. Needless to say it keeps you up to date without having to constantly check all your favorite sites for their latest information or news. Moreover, you will not be required to join the email newsletter of the site so you do not have to worry about your privacy.
This is the newest way of delivering information to the regular web user and a lot of sites offer it. If you are wondering what software you would need to read the feeds, you can have FeedReader, Amphetadesk and News Aggregator. Bloglines, Goolge Reader and other sites are web based feed readers. After you have chosen your feed reader, you now find your favorite sites and add them to the list of your feeds. If you want to know if a site is offering feeds, just look for the small icons with XML, RDF or RSS acronyms.
Similar with other web based technology, the RSS feeds also has different versions. These versions are basically divided into two categories. The first is the RDF or RSS 1 and the second is the RSS 2. The RSS 1, which was the original RSS of Nescape includes the RSS 0.90. Then there is also the RSS 1.0, which is an open format. And of course, lastly there is the similar open format like its previous version but not endorsed by the RSS Dev Working Group, the RSS 1.1.
The RSS 2 has the RSS 0.91, which is the simple version of the original Netscape RSS. Then there are the RSS 0.92 to 0.94 versions which are compatible with 0.91 Winer version and with each other. Lastly, there is the international version, the RSS 2.0.1. You will not have any problem reading your feeds since most sites support both the two types of versions. If you are among the web users who have different and many interests you should try using RSS feeds. You will be surprised at how the feeds can save you time by instead of visiting regularly your favorite sites. Related Info Blog syndication -- Rss site -- Rss syndication --