RSS is an acronym for Really Simple Syndication. RSS is an offshoot
of XML. RSS is a handy tool which webmasters / bloggers use to inform the visitors
that new content (or a new blog) has been published on the website, giving the visitors who subcribe to the RSS feed the option
to come back to the website to check the new content / blog. This is a non-intrusive way for websites to invite their
visitors back. When people go to websites which have RSS feeds posted for subscription, they can choose whether to subscribe
to the feeds or not.
Some of the more popular RSS readers include the Google RSS Reader and the My Yahoo! RSS reader. As we move from the Web 2.0 to the
Web 3.0 world, subscribing to the various RSS feeds / channels will become ubiquotous and
part of our everyday life, and humans won't have to undertake the intricate task of cutting and pasting
the URLs of the RSS feeds to their RSS readers, which they have to currently do for some RSS readers.
For your RSS file to work, it must have <rss> as the
start-tag element, and it must have
</rss> as the
end-tag element. In other words,
a well-formatted RSS file starts with the <rss> element and ends with the </rss> element.
It must also have one item, enclosed by the <item> and </item> tags. When you post the links under these
<item> tags which the visitor needs to click to go to the actual website, these links
get prominently displayed in the RSS Reader that your website visitor uses to subscribe
to your feeds.
RSS files can have the .XML or the .RSS extension. The following layout
of an actual RSS file clarifies these concepts further.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<rss version="2.0">
<channel>
<title>Franteractive - New Content</title>
<:description>RSS Feed for new content on All Franteractive Portals</description>
<link>http://rss.franteractive.com/feed9999.xml</link>
<image>
<title>Franteractive - New Content</title>
<url>http://www.franteractive.com/FlogoWslogan.gif</url>
<link>http://rss.franteractive.com/feed9999.xml</link>
</image>
<language>en-us</language>
<copyright>Copyright (c) 2007 Franteractive Inc. All Rights Reserved</copyright> <webMaster>info@franteractive.com
</webMaster>
<pubDate>Mon, 17 Sep 2007</pubDate>
<item> <title>Web 3.0 Dictionary Entry - RSS - Updated</title> <description>Entry beefed up, and updated with an example of a RSS / XML file.</description>
<link>http://software.franteractive.com/Concepts/rss.html</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 17 Sep 2007</pubDate> </item>
<item> <title>MRD / PRD Package - 50 Page Template - $89 Promotional Offer</title> <description>This industrial strength MRD / PRD package is focused on building Hardware / Firmware products and solutions. Sample sections in this MRD / PRD document which is fifty pages in length include Manufacturing Requirements, Regulatory Compliance and Homologation, Customer Success and Use Cases, Brand (Counterfeit) Protection, Product Requirements including Upgrade / Transition / Migration plans, Product Strategy, Product Positioning, Market Dynamics and Strategy, Product go-to-market strategies, New Customer Launch and Anti-Competitive Launch, Cost-based Pricing and Competitive Pricing, Product Localization / Internationalization, System Performance Impact, Preventive maintenance / Sparing, IP (Intellectual Property) Licensing, Reliability, Availability, Serviceability, Responsive Supply Chain Design guidelines, Review Action Items, Glossary, and References . . . Attractively priced at $89 (this is a promotional price until the end of the quarter, after which the price goes up to $289), this package is ideal for high-tech firms serious about their product marketing and product management efforts. Please click on the link above to browse the PRD / MRD for free. </description>
<link>http://software.franteractive.com/hardware prd/pg_0002.htm</link>
<pubDate>Sun, 16 Sep 2007</pubDate>
</item>
<item> <title>Porter Five Forces -
Additional Content Added</title>
<description>Each of the Porter's Five Forces has been exploded in sufficient
detail. For example, industry
rivalry increases because of low brand recogntion, low product differentiation,
high barriers to exit, high fixed costs, low variable costs, low buyer switching
costs, high industry growth rate, and a large number of firms in the industry.
</description>
<link>http://www.franteractive.com/strategy/Porter-Industry-Rivalry.html
</link> <pubDate>Sat, 15 Sep 2007</pubDate>
</item>
</channel> </rss>
The above is an actual RSS feed. To see the result of this feed, please
click here.
