(For a quick summary of RSS, please refer to the Advanced FAQ.)

According to Netscape, the original creators of the RSS (version 0.90) format in 1999, RSS is:

an XML/RDF vocabulary for describing metadata about
websites, and enabling the display of "channels" on the
"My Netscape" website.

It was initially designed to be a format for constructing browser-based portals containing headlines from recognized news sources on the Web. At its core, RSS is a document that contains XML-formatted information describing a "channel" consisting of titles, links, and often summaries -- think of it as a "stripped" version of the contents of a full HTML page. Netscape later replaced version 0.90 with what they perceived to be a more simple, streamlined version - 0.91. Thus began the virtual "soap opera" known as RSS formats!

After Netscape dropped the format entirely, another party (a software company) acquired the 0.91 format and began to use it in their programs. Unhappy with the oversimplications of 0.91, a non-commercial third-party splintered and designed a new format based on the principles of the original version 0.90 and announced it as version 1.0. Not surprisingly, the software company supporting 0.91 felt challenged and continued to develop the 0.9x versions (completely oblivious to their rival's version scheme) until they jumped to version 2.0. However, keep in mind that these rival formats use different specifications, so it would be incorrect to assume version 2.0 is more advanced or updated than 1.0.

NOTE: SiteBlog 2 supports RSS versions 0.92, 1.0, 2.0 and Atom 0.3 (yet another independent, rival format attempting to eliminate the RSS version-clutter), so you need not worry about compatibility.

Regardless of its history and numerous versions, the true utility of RSS in today's constantly changing, information-rich society is delivering the information you want, when and how you want it. Netscape's original intent to provide a mechanism by which content-sensitive information could be "channeled" in an organized manner was never lost on subsequent developers. Rivals they may be in formats, united they are in feeding the public's hunger for information.

The recent explosion of weblogs (or blogs) has created an avalanche of constantly updating information -- information that somebody, somewhere is interested in reading -- on the Web. Combined with the already pervasive presence of news resource Web sites, there is interesting, provocative, controversial, touching, humorous, insightful and informative "news" to be found at any given moment. As convenient and available the Web has made information access, RSS technology makes it even more convenient and available as the inherent principle in RSS is based on voluntary, user-subscription. Such a principle benefits both the RSS feeder and the RSS reader. The former acquires a targeted audience that voluntarily reads its content and uses its services (in fact, RSS is a useful business tool); the latter gains access to interesting and timely information on his/her terms.

For you, the user, RSS enables you to manage the information you want to read from the constantly updating Web sites of your choice in the form of headlines/titles, links, and summaries.

The question is, How do I receive the information in the first place? How do I subscribe to these channels? The answer is newsfeeders and aggregators.

A newsfeeder/aggregator (or RSS feed reader) is a cross-platform tool that allows you to subscribe to multiple channels and serves as a one-stop source for all news and information from your favorite RSS feeding sites. Most of these programs are client-side based, but a few are browser-based. Click here for a list of available newsfeeders. The only requirement for using these tools is that you must provide the URL of the RSS feed, which is different than the URL of the Web site.

One of the best features of SiteBlog 2 is its built-in ability to be both a RSS reader and a RSS feeder. So not only can you subscribe to your favorite RSS-enabled sites in the SiteBlog 2 admin panel (and read the headlines on the blog page itself), but you can also feed your own articles to your readers. We recommend using SiteBlog 2's reader so that you can share your favorite feeds with your readers; after all sharing and interacting is the hallmark of blogging. (NOTE: Just like other RSS readers, you must provide the RSS URL in order to subscribe.)

If a site offers RSS feed, then it's typically a simple procedure to find its URL (which you will in turn copy and paste into the newsfeeder of your choice). Please do keep in mind that despite the growing number of news, business and blog sites that offer RSS, the vast majority of sites do not.

Some Web sites make it easy by clearly labeling its RSS feed with either a link titled "RSS", "Syndication", or "Metadata". Others use icons to represent the feed, which usually look like or (or some variant thereof).

The alternative method used by more and more sites is direct subscription via a RSS-capable browser. Using a RSS-capable browser (for example, Firefox), you can bookmark a RSS feed simply by visiting the regular site and clicking on the subscribe button/icon in the lower-right corner of the browser. When you visit a site that feeds RSS using Firefox, you'll see this icon on the Windows platform, , and this icon on the Mac platform, . By clicking on the icon you can select the RSS format that the site supports and bookmark the RSS URL.

Any RSS-capable browser is a useful tool for extracting the RSS URL from sites that do not make them easily available. Once you bookmark it, simply copy the URL from the browser's bookmarking management tool and paste it into the RSS reader of your choice.

The more you use it, the more you get out of it. Although news-reading is the most popular use of RSS, there are other uses (including search engine feeds). Explore the possibilities by searching for RSS resources on the Web. You'll find that there is no shortage of information on the technology and its practical uses.