About Syndication, RSS, and Other Web-Altering Chemicals

A introduction to RSS feeds, to all the RSS newcomers from "Feed Burner"

If you're new to RSS and syndication on the web, we hope this page offers a straightforward exploration of the purpose and promise these changes bring to Internet publishing and browsing as you know it now.

What is RSS?

"RSS" stands for Really Simple Syndication, Rich Site Summary, and/or Rockdale, Sandow, and Southern (Railroad) (if you trust the good folks at AcronymFinder.com). Really Simple Syndication is probably the most widely agreed-upon choice. As far as we are concerned, all three acronyms do an inadequate job of describing what RSS actually is: RSS is a standard for publishing regular updates to web-based content. Using this standard, Web publishers provide updates, such as the latest news headlines or weblog postings. Meanwhile, consumers use RSS reader applications (or one of a growing number of online services) to collect and monitor their favorite feeds in one place (RSS content from a publisher, viewed in one of these readers, is often called a "feed").

Consumer Bottom Line: RSS makes reviewing a large number of sites in a very short time possible.

Publisher Bottom Line: RSS permits instant distribution of content updates to consumers.

Who publishes RSS feeds?

Some of the biggest names on the web now offer content using RSS feeds:
BBC News Headlines
ABCNews
Yahoo!
CNET
Amazon.com
...and many more!

In addition, thousands of weblog authors publish feeds to keep themselves better connected to their readers/admirers/critics. Weblogs are a driving force behind a recent surge in interest for RSS and syndicated content. By the end of 2004, we feel that the number of top-tier sites not syndicating any content will be in the minority.

How do I read RSS Feeds?

If you want to collect and browse feeds you have many choices, but there are two primary categories of feed reading applications: installable desktop programs and online services. There are many desktop applications for Windows and Mac OS system users, but two of our favorites are FeedDemon (Windows) and NetNewsWire (Mac OS X). Both require a small purchase price but are tops for ease of use and ship with dozens of feeds pre-loaded so you can explore the syndication "universe" right away. Free readers are available as well; a search for "RSS Reader" at popular search sites will yield many results.

If you would prefer to use an online service to track and manage your feeds, you have the advantage of being able to access your feed updates anywhere you use a web browser (and in some cases, on mobile devices). Also, any upgrades or new features are added automatically. The trade-off comes in different (some would say fewer) features and slightly slower performance versus desktop systems. NewsGator, Bloglines, and MyFeedster are probably the three best-known examples of web-based feed reading services.

How can I publish my own RSS Feed?

If you have a website or weblog, you can add RSS syndication as a publishing option, in some cases automatically. How easy this is to accomplish depends entirely on how your site is served today. If you are using a hosted publishing tool like TypePad or Blogger, you may already be publishing a feed without even knowing it. Investigate whether your provider's administration tools offer any feed-related options or controls. Other types of websites and application platforms may require some programming skills in order to add RSS syndication capabilities.
Our service, FeedBurner, allows publishers who already have RSS Feeds to improve their understanding of and relationship with their syndication audience. Once you've got a working feed created with your own tools, pipe it through FeedBurner and realize a whole new set of benefits.

Where is RSS headed? What's next after text?

2004 should prove to be a big year for RSS to go mainstream. And that's just for bringing you the latest headlines, personal publications, and other textual content. RSS will gain whole new levels of fun/utility/value once it moves beyond just text and links. You can get a glimpse of the future today:

Commerce: Apple's iTunes Feed Generator informs you of updates to their growing music library across genres you specify.

Images: Flickr's new publishing tools promise to put camera phone images just about everywhere. Textamerica's photoblogging service provides feeds containing photos you have uploaded.

Entertainment: How about a feed for sharing TV programming favorites with other TiVo/PVR owners?

And finally, some technical back-story

RSS is based on XML, a widely used standard for information exchange between applications on the Internet. RSS feeds can be viewed by human users as plain text, but they're really designed for computer-to-computer communication. To further muddy the waters, we should point out that RSS is just one standard for expressing feeds as XML. Another well-known choice is Atom. Something of a format war is under way among the most impassioned developers in both camps; we can only hope the dust settles soon and the development community embraces a single evolutionary standard. Most feed users simply want fresh content and couldn't care less about the underlying protocol. (FeedBurner helps publishers avoid this quandry, by the way. Apply our SmartFeed™ service to your feed and your content format is conveniently future-proofed.)