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RSS is the short form of Really Simple Syndication. It is an online tool for syndicating news and other web contents which are published periodically such as personal blogs, news sites, and news-oriented community sites like Indymedia and Slashdot. RSS is also called content feed. The web content which is in RSS format can be regarded as feed. When the feed that an Internet user has ordered is changed or updated, RSS Reader, which is installed and set up in the user’s computer, will react to the changes. RSS Reader helps users to keep up with the sites that they subscribe to by checking the feeds automatically and informing them. Therefore, the users do not have to check every site that they are interested in themselves. Imaging that you subscribe to a newspaper that business stories are from Courier Mail, sport news are form Sydney Morning Herald, and health stories are form The Age. It is how RSS technology works.
The first version of RSS 0.90 was invented by Netscape. Other companies such as UserLand Software and RSS-DEV Working Group then keep developing other RSS versions and formats such as RSS 0.92, 0.93, and 1.0 based on the technology of RSS 0.90. Therefore, there are lots of RSS versions that users can download for free on the Internet. The same situation as RSS, RSS Reader is also available in many versions. SharpReader, FeedDemon, and IntraVnews are examples of this.
The latest application of RSS is to subscribe to audio file which is known as podcasting. Podcasting works as the audio form of blog. It is a method of publishing audio programs via the Internet, allowing users to download it to their mp3 player and listen to it when they are free (Jennings 2004). RSS enables people to subscribe to the audio files they like and create their own radio program in their mp3 player.
RSS is the reason that people can keep up with all the published information from many different sites easily, but there are one thing that online readers should aware.
Just like eating, when people are partial for particular kinds of food, the nutrition will be unbalanced so that influences their health. Similarly, if readers only feed themselves the information that they are interested in and then just check information from their RSS-aware program without browsing online frequently, they will miss many new ideas and issues. In order to maintain informed, people should be aware of their behaviour carefully when using RSS technology.
Pilgrim, M. 2002. What is RSS. www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/12/18/dive-into-xml.html (accessed October 03, 2005).
Cone, E. 2005. Rise of blog. www.cioinsight.com/article2/0,1397,1789118,00.asp (accessed August 11, 2005).
Jennings, D. 2004. Podcasting: another harbinger of martini. alchemi.co.uk/archives/mus/podcasting_anot.html (accessed October 03, 2005).
--Chih-Yen Li 02:52, 10 Oct 2005 (EST)
