An introduction to RSS feeds

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According to Wikipedia:
RSS (originally RDF Site Summary, often dubbed Really Simple Syndication) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format.An RSS document (which is called a "feed", "web feed",or "channel") includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship.

What this simply means is,RSS feeds provide you,a way to subscribe to latest news provided from various sources,such as blogs,web-sites,podcasts,etc.
Now,to start viewing RSS feeds,you'll need two things:

1. An RSS feed URL
   
2. An RSS feed reader,that may be standalone desktop software application,web-based,or mobile based
   

For getting RSS feed URL,you'll have to search for an icon shown on most of the web-sites,like the one below


just click on this icon,and you will get the RSS feed URL in your browser's address bar.NOTE:However,this might not work on every websites,as the divide their RSS feeds into subcategories.So,you'll have to click on seperate categories in order to get this URL.
Some examples of RSS feed URL are shown below

• Google news(http://news.google.com/?output=rss)
  
• Engadget(http://www.engadget.com/rss.xml)
  
• BBC news(http://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/rss.xml)
  

Now,for the second part,the RSS readers,I will list down some web based and standalone softwares

• WEB-BASED
  
  
  
  1. Google reader(http://www.google.com/reader)
     
  2. Pageflakes(http://www.pageflakes.com/)
     
  
  
• Desktop based apps
  
  
  
  1. FeedDemon(http://www.feeddemon.com/)
     
  2. RssBandit(http://rssbandit.org/)
     
  
  

After you have completed these two steps,all you have to do is copy the feed url,Click on Subscribe button wherever you find it,and paste the feed URL here.Now,you'll be subscribed to that particular news,and will get the latest feed,as long your internet connection is on.
Hope you enjoyed this article :)

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