RSS stands for "really simple syndication". One need on the Internet is to exchange data in a method that new data can be readily and rapidly incorporated into "newsfeeds" of web page content. These newsfeeds are designed for a higher purpose of disseminating timely information rapidly, but can also be accessed by individuals who have a so-called RSS news reader. The standards for RSS feeds are given at the following address for the RSS 2.0 Specification.

How do I get an RSS news reader?

One of the best newsreaders that I have found is the free reader Lektora, which comes with about 30 news feeds pre-configured. Lektora works within Microsoft Internet Explorer or Firefox. To add a newsfeed, the user just needs to click, drag or copy an "XML" or "RSS" button or load a URL into the news reader (whichever method is requred to install a URL into the reader). In Lektora, a simple click on the characteristic orange "XML" or "RSS" box ( or )

Are there any examples of the RSS news feed being used?

Daniel Mosquin of the University of British Columbia Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research has crafted the Scott's Botanical Link newsfeed into his site on the following web page: UBC Botanical Garden: Botanical Electronic News (External Newsfeed). His site uses the newsfeed to dynamically construct his website. It is updated whenever the newsfeed is changed.

How could I make a RSS news feed?

Download an RSS news writer from one of the download sites. One that I have tried is FeedForAll, but I must warn you that I have not tried any others. By the time that I made my first feed, I realized that I could do this easily by myself and I wrote some simple code to make my feeds. If you are planning to attempt this, I would recommend looking some of the code and just changing the fields to suit your content. RSS is written in XML and the subset of commands that are most often used are simpler than HTML. But try the output before releasing your newsfeeds, as it can be persnickety (e.g., use no bare ampersands anywhere and no additional markup in titles!).

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