RSS (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 RSSdocument
(which is called a "feed", "web feed", or "channel") includes full or summarized text,
plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers
by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to
subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many
sites into one place. RSS feeds can be read using software called an "RSS reader",
"feed reader", or "aggregator", which can be web-based, desktop-based, or
mobile-device-based. A standardized XML file format allows the information to be
published once and viewed by many different programs. The user subscribes to
a feed by entering the feed's URI (often referred to informally as a "URL"
(uniform resource locater), although technically the two terms are not
exactly synonymous into the reader or by clicking an RSS icon in a browser that
initiates the subscription process. The RSS reader checks the user's subscribed
feeds regularly for new work, downloads any updates that it finds, and provides
a user interface to monitor and read the feeds.
