RSS - An Explanation
Really Simple Syndication or RSS as it is more commonly known as is a useful tool
for keeping updated on your favourite websites. There are billions of web pages
on the internet now and keeping up to date with these sites is a bit like mission
impossible. luckily RSS has arrived to do all the work for you.
How does RSS work?
RSS allows you to see when your favourite web sites have added new content. You
can get the latest headlines, articles, audio files, photographs or video in one
place, as soon as they are published, without having to remember to visit each site
every day.
I'm sure you can imagine how much easier this makes life. It takes the hassle out
of staying up-to-date by showing you the very latest information that you are interested
in.
In order to receive RSS feeds, you must have an aggregator or feed reader. These
are software applications that you can download for your computer. Typically there
are also a number of aggregators online, many of them free, so with a little bit
of searching, you should be able to find an interface that appeals to you.
How do you get RSS?
Most sites that offer an RSS feed have an "RSS" or "XML" button on their homepage
that you can click on and it will instantly add that feed to your aggregator. The
Mediatrack blog uses the standard RSS icon (see below)
The buttons below which you will have seen on our blog represent some of the most
popular online aggregators.
Depending on your aggregator, you may instead need to copy and paste the URL of
the feed into the program. By either method, the feed will be available as soon
as you've added it, and your next update could arrive in seconds.
If you ever decide that you don't want to receive updates anymore, you simply delete
the feed or URL from your aggregator.
What are the benefits?
Perhaps you already receive information on website updates through some sort of
e-mail newsletter. RSS feeds are preferable to newsletter updates because they are
instantaneous; you don't have to wait until a designated day of the week to receive
your summary.
They will also never be held up by a spam filter. RSS feeds are used daily by people
who realize the convenience of up-to-the-minute news and reports and the time they
can save reading only those updates that interest them, and they look to become
even more popular in the future.
The Mediatrack RSS Feed
The Mediatrack feed allows you to read all our blog entries without actually visiting
our blog. We'll be updating this part of our site with all the latest Mediatrack
and media evaluation news.