Lesson 6: The Wonderful World of RSS

Have you seen these symbols (or ones like them) around the internet:

What are they? Some strange symbols for computers? A logo for a cool online club? Part of some alien civilization?

They’re symbols of the future of the Internet, and understanding them is key to having long-term success in this thing called the blogosphere.

Understanding RSS

These orange symbols may have different letters on them. Instead of XML, the letters may say, “Atom,” “RDF,” or “RSS.” What the letters say is really quite irrelevant for our purposes. Their function is the same. They not only allow help update search engines with your latest posts, but allow individuals to see your posts as soon as you update your blog using a feed reader.

Most people view a blog by visiting it. They’ve got it saved in their “favorites” or “bookmarks” and that’s how they find out what’s happening. This is like walking down to the grocery store to buy a newspaper.

Subscribing to a blog via a Feed Reader is like having it home delivered at no cost. If people have the money and wish to read the paper regularly, they’ll generally subscribe to avoid the inconvenience of an extra trip. People will eventually use Feed Readers to read blogs and other news sources without the inconvenience of having to go to their website or dealing with slow load times or arriving at a site only to find it hasn’t been updated.

Lest we think, that only blogs are doing this, take a look at what the major wire service Reuters is doing:

All websites which want to thrive and survive need to better understand RSS to reach their audience.

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