What is RSS?
“RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines, and podcasts in a standardized format. An RSS document (which is called a “feed,” “web feed,” or “channel”) contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with web sites in an automated manner that can be piped into special programs or filtered displays.” – Wikipedia
Wow, that was a mouthful, but don’t worry, that doesn’t mean that much to us either. We often get the question, “What is that RSS link thingy on your site and why would I want to subscribe to it?”. So, we put this page together to help explain just what the heck it is.
Do you want to keep up to date with new activities and “things to-do” that are posted on our site? We have a number of ways that you can stay informed through several different subscription methods. The main one being RSS.
Typically, in order to keep up with all your favorite sites, you would have to bookmark those sites and return to them manually on a regular basis to be sure you got all the new info.
The problem with this process is that you do all the work. You had to remember to bookmark the site, remember to get check it, and who has time for that? You may also miss things if you don’t check back often enough and with a growing list of favorite websites, keeping track of all of them manually gets time consuming. You also tend to see the same information again and again as you check back when no updates have been made.
And Then There Was RSS
Now, instead of having to go to each website to see what’s new, the updates are sent to you! RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication. The technology behind RSS is widely used across the internet and allows millions of users to keep track of new items, changes and new information posted to sites around the world. Some call it a news feed or subscription which are both great ways to describe it. Imagine RSS would be like subscribing to a magazine and having it show up every time there is something new in it. Every time there is an update on your favorite sites, you now get it automatically pushed to your favorite RSS reader.
How to use RSS
You’ll need an RSS reader. You’ll find that once you start using RSS you just can’t stop. It’s so easy. We’d recommend starting with Google’s RSS reader. A staff favorite is Netvibes.com but you can find a bunch more here.
The best way to figure all this out is to get yourself an RSS reader from one of the links above and start subscribing to things. Every time you see this symbol ( 
) you can click on it and subscribe to it through your reader of choice. Well, enough from us, get out there and explore!
Further reading on RSS:
