RSS Tutorial
“Fast-start” explanation of RSS feeds: The Work the System website includes Blog RSS (Really Simple Syndication) functionality. Visitors to the website can click on the RSS icon to subscribe to the Blog.
We use a service called Feedburner* which provides you a number of choices for subscribing. Clicking on the RSS icon will open a Feedburner website window. With FeedBurner, the RSS feed can be received in a web browser, via email, mobile phone, or in readers such as iGoogle or MyYahoo. A large benefit of using an RSS feed is that you will receive timely updates whenever new material is posted on the Blog: There is no need to enter a URL into your browser; everything is automatic. In the larger scope of things, using RSS feed protocol allows you to funnel information from a variety of sources into one location (browser, reader, email, mobile device, etc.).
We know you are innundated with information so unless there is an unusual situation, we’ll keep dispatches (sometimes essays; sometimes newsletters) to just one per week, usually on Tuesdays or Wednesdays. We will never, ever share your email address with a third party.
RSS Definition from Wikipedia: RSS (most commonly translated as “Really Simple Syndication” but sometimes “Rich Site Summary”) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format. An RSS document (which is called a “feed”, “web feed”, or “channel”) includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds can be read using software called an “RSS reader”, “feed reader”, or “aggregator“, which can be web-based, desktop-based, or mobile-device-based. A standardized XML file format allows the information to be published once and viewed by many different programs. The user subscribes to a feed by entering into the reader the feed’s URI or by clicking an RSS icon in a browser that initiates the subscription process. The RSS reader checks the user’s subscribed feeds regularly for new work, downloads any updates that it finds, and provides a user interface to monitor and read the feeds.
RSS formats are specified using XML, a generic specification for the creation of data formats. Although RSS formats have evolved since March 1999, the RSS icon (“ “), first gained widespread use between 2005 and 2006.
*FeedBurner is a web feed management provider launched in 2004.[1] FeedBurner provides custom RSS feeds and management tools to bloggers, podcasters, and other web-based content publishers. Services provided to publishers include traffic analysis [2] and an optional advertising system. Though it initially was not clear whether advertising would be well-suited to the RSS format,[3] authors now choose to include advertising in two-thirds of FeedBurner’s feeds.[4] Users can find out how many people have subscribed to their feeds and with what service/program they subscribed with.
On June 3, 2007, FeedBurner was acquired by Google Inc., for a rumored price of $100 million.[7] One month later, two of their popular PRO services (MyBrand and TotalStats) were made free to all users.[8]
On August 15, 2008, Google completed migration of FeedBurner into its group of services.[citation needed] Publishers who have completed migration will access FeedBurner via feedburner.google.com.
