RSS

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RSS is an acronym for Rich Site Summary, RDF Site Summary, or Really Simple Syndication. The proper acronym depends on which version is used. RSS is an XML format that allows websites to easily syndicate their content. An aggregator is typically used to receive and subscribe to syndicated content feeds.

=History=

The first version of RSS (0.91, Rich Site Summary) was created by Netscape in 1999 for their portal service my.netscape.com. Netscape already supported scriptingNews, a precursor to RSS. RSS 2.0 was relicensed through Harvard University under a Creative Commons license in July 2003.

RSS attracted little attention until being picked up by the growing craze of blogs[|(1)].

Above: A flowchart showing the evolution of RSS from its origin to its most recent incarnations

=Incompatibilities=

There have been three significant, incompatible versions of RSS:
 * RSS 0.91, Rich Site Summary
 * RSS 1.0, RDF Site Summary, and
 * RSS 2.0, Really Simple Syndication

Thanks to many issues with RSS, and since the RSS 2.0 Specification is frozen and copyrighted by Harvard University, another incompatible syndication specification (Atom) began to emerge in 2003.

=Uses=

Weblogs
Both creators and readers of weblogs benefit from the ease of use of RSS. An avid blog reader can easily check for updates and read the latest messages, while the creators generally enjoy a more dedicated readership.

News
One of the most common uses for RSS is now on news and news-like sites, including major players such as [|Wired] and [|CNN]. News-oriented community site [|Slashdot] also uses RSS.

Other
RSS has found many other uses on the internet, usually for the same purposes as above but occasionally for something new. VCDQuality.com, a popular illegal movie release rating site uses RSS to send updates. Bash.org, a popular site for submitting and reading hilarious online chats (usually on the IRC network, but also from AOL and MSN) now has incorporated the same. In reality, anything that can be broken down into discrete items can be syndicated for RSS.

=Example=

code format="xml" 



News Channel Title http://example.org/newspage/ Describe your site in a few words or less... or more. en-us Copyleft 2006. Example Organization Media Corporation admin@example.org admin@example.org NewsItem #1 http://example.org/link-to-expanded-news-item February 2, 2006 - The meat of the story goes here. Today is Groundhog Day! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107048/ February 2, 2006 - Groundhog Day: a fantastic postmodern movie starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. The protagonist is stuck in the worst day of his life ... over and over... I suggest you go watch it today! I know I will code

=External Links=


 * [|RSS: The Latest Feed]