What is RSS?

Some time ago, I wrote a post Yes! You HAVE an RSS Feed! Many people were thankful for it, however, I received a couple of emails recently asking me, “What is an RSS feed?”

What is RSS?

RSS stands for more than one thing. Usually, RSS stands for “really simply syndication,” but it can also mean “rich site summary.” That answers the question of what is RSS, but what can it do?

What is RSS in the context of really simple syndication? It is a tool that allows sites to give a quick summary of important links and descriptions in XML format. XML is just a standard type of format used by computers to share data. By having this common format, it essentially allows websites to syndicate (or share) their content by allowing other blog owners and webmasters to use this summary as part of a list of summaries on a specific topic.

Blogmasters and webmasters collect these various summaries with something called a feed aggregator or a feed reader. Rather than asking “what is RSS?” this tool will ask “where is RSS” — and then find it. An aggregator finds RSS feeds to aggregate from selected large sites – such as Yahoo and MSN – and selected smaller sites, such as hand-picked personal blogs and news sites.

The blogmasters and webmasters then take the script generated from the aggregator and insert it into their blogs. This then creates an RSS feed that automatically pulls news items and blog posts whenever they appear. Whenever the blog or site page is refreshed, it will display the latest items.

Does this mean people copying your blog content? Is that good?

This is good for two reasons. If you use your own RSS feed, you can get your content syndicated across the Internet without actually paying to submit dozens of press releases and contact dozens of blog owners and webmasters. This broadens your reach to a larger audience without having to do any extra work! Think about the old sitcoms or tv shows that go into syndication – it is just like that!

Additionally, using RSS feeds is good if you own a blog and want to add fresh content. This will allow you to constantly put new content links and summaries on your blog without spending the time to hunt around for related information. All you will have to do is select a feed aggregator and select a potential feeds from a list of news sites and authority blogs. Additionally, you will be able to input your own selections, allowing you to create custom feeds.

So what is RSS? RSS is a simple way in which to drive traffic to your blog and to display summaries of other blogs.