What Is An Rss Feed

What is an RSS feed? If you have never encountered this bit of technology before, it can be a little confusing at first. However, RSS feeds are really simple to use tools that can help you keep up with all of the sites that you read. Not only will it save you time, it will help you make sure that you never miss an update on your favorite blog or news site.

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. This syndication method is used by websites that have content that is regularly updated. Blogs, news sites and many other regularly updated sites use RSS feeds to get their content out there. RSS feeds can be used by the site's readers to see what is new. It can also be used by associates of the website in order to repost, or syndicate, the content from that site. For instance, a site that sells supplements through an affiliate program may make an RSS feed available to affiliates so that the affiliates can have informational articles about the product on their site.

But, how do you as the reader use RSS feeds? You will first need to find a good RSS Reader. If you have a Yahoo! or a Google account, you already have access to a web-based RSS reader that is very easy to use. On Google, that RSS reader is Google Reader. Yahoo!'s is called "My Yahoo." You can also download an RSS reader to be used outside of your browser. Popular ones include FeedReader and NewsGator.

Once you've chosen an RSS Reader, you will need to find RSS feeds to read. You can find RSS feeds on sites by looking for an orange square icon with a dot and two arcs inside. On most sites, it will be somewhere near the bottom of the page, often on the right-hand side. If you right-click this icon, you will see the RSS feed URL. Enter this URL into your feed reader of choice, and you will be able to read your favorite sites all in one place.