Thursday, April 27, 2006
A Brief History Of RSS
So, it's come to my attention that at least one of my readers isn't using RSS to ease their web browsing. It's not that everyone should be using RSS for their web browsing. It's probably not even the best way to get your browsing done. But it certianly simplifies my life, and I think it can help yours too.
The most logical place to start is probably the wikipedia page on RSS, which states :
That's all there is to it really. The details go a little something like this...
XML is a way of creating a file that contains data in a universally readable way.
What happens is, the website providing an "RSS feed" has some type of script running on the server that creates and XML file that contains the data from the website the "feed" pertains to. The "feed" is simply an XML file that has a web address. The feed file changes as the web page changes, but the URL stays the same, so you can always go to the same place to get the newest up-to-date feed. Doing this (going back to the feed to get the newest up-to-date version) is called "syndication" (like in the TV world). The XML file defines the "story" titles, sometimes a summary of the content in the story, or even the whole story, links, etc, etc. Actually there isn't a really strict formula, so the server script that creates these things can put whatever it wants in there.
"Well," you might be saying, "what the heck does this have to do with me and my web browsing? Can't I just go to the webpage itself to see the new content? Why do I want some weird intermediate file to tell me about what's on the page?"
The answer is, and you might not know this already, you probably don't want to read the whole page. And even if you are reading the whole page, or skimming for what you want, you're not doing a very good job of it - machines are really good at this kind of stuff, and people really aren't.
This is where an "aggregator" comes into play. An "aggregator" has bookmarks to lots of different RSS feeds, checks them regularly for you, and displays the results.
Actually, RSS is the technology behind all those podcasts the kids are listening to these days. RSS is how iTunes knows when there's a new episode and where to find it.
How does this make you browse faster/better? Often it will display the info in a way that lets you only view the titles of stories, or just the titles and a small summary of the story (instead of the whole story), so you don't have to scroll through pages and pages of stuff you're not interested in. You can just watch the feed results come in, and pick the stories you want to read.
There are LOTS of aggregators out there to use.
The newest version of Safari comes with an RSS reader built in, but I don't think it's particularly good at the aggregation thing (it can read one RSS feed really well, but it's up to you to go read the RSS feeds yourself). As the linked article suggests, just click on the RSS button in the address bar to get started.
Firefox has a really cool concept called "Live Bookmarks" which works really well. You bookmark the RSS feed, and you can read the titles of the articles in the feed out of a submenu that appears when you click on the live bookmark. Still though, this is only half way to real aggregation.
I use a Firefox extension called Sage to do my aggregating.
A really popular one for Mac OS X is NetNewsWire (though the full version isn't free). Newsfire looks good too. Vienna also looks good. There's a ton of these things in the downloads section at Apple.com.
The reason this has all come up is because every blogger.com blog has an RSS feed. I use them to keep on top of my friend's blogs, as well as bigger blogs as well like Digg.com and Slashdot.org.
So, may your browsing be quicker and your reading more efficient.
The most logical place to start is probably the wikipedia page on RSS, which states :
Web feeds provide web content or summaries of web content together with links to the full versions of the content, and other metadata. RSS in particular, delivers this information as an XML file called an RSS feed, webfeed, RSS stream, or RSS channel. In addition to facilitating syndication, web feeds allow a website's frequent readers to track updates on the site using an aggregator.
That's all there is to it really. The details go a little something like this...
XML is a way of creating a file that contains data in a universally readable way.
What happens is, the website providing an "RSS feed" has some type of script running on the server that creates and XML file that contains the data from the website the "feed" pertains to. The "feed" is simply an XML file that has a web address. The feed file changes as the web page changes, but the URL stays the same, so you can always go to the same place to get the newest up-to-date feed. Doing this (going back to the feed to get the newest up-to-date version) is called "syndication" (like in the TV world). The XML file defines the "story" titles, sometimes a summary of the content in the story, or even the whole story, links, etc, etc. Actually there isn't a really strict formula, so the server script that creates these things can put whatever it wants in there.
"Well," you might be saying, "what the heck does this have to do with me and my web browsing? Can't I just go to the webpage itself to see the new content? Why do I want some weird intermediate file to tell me about what's on the page?"
The answer is, and you might not know this already, you probably don't want to read the whole page. And even if you are reading the whole page, or skimming for what you want, you're not doing a very good job of it - machines are really good at this kind of stuff, and people really aren't.
This is where an "aggregator" comes into play. An "aggregator" has bookmarks to lots of different RSS feeds, checks them regularly for you, and displays the results.
Actually, RSS is the technology behind all those podcasts the kids are listening to these days. RSS is how iTunes knows when there's a new episode and where to find it.
How does this make you browse faster/better? Often it will display the info in a way that lets you only view the titles of stories, or just the titles and a small summary of the story (instead of the whole story), so you don't have to scroll through pages and pages of stuff you're not interested in. You can just watch the feed results come in, and pick the stories you want to read.
There are LOTS of aggregators out there to use.
The newest version of Safari comes with an RSS reader built in, but I don't think it's particularly good at the aggregation thing (it can read one RSS feed really well, but it's up to you to go read the RSS feeds yourself). As the linked article suggests, just click on the RSS button in the address bar to get started.
Firefox has a really cool concept called "Live Bookmarks" which works really well. You bookmark the RSS feed, and you can read the titles of the articles in the feed out of a submenu that appears when you click on the live bookmark. Still though, this is only half way to real aggregation.
I use a Firefox extension called Sage to do my aggregating.
A really popular one for Mac OS X is NetNewsWire (though the full version isn't free). Newsfire looks good too. Vienna also looks good. There's a ton of these things in the downloads section at Apple.com.
The reason this has all come up is because every blogger.com blog has an RSS feed. I use them to keep on top of my friend's blogs, as well as bigger blogs as well like Digg.com and Slashdot.org.
So, may your browsing be quicker and your reading more efficient.
Comments:
<< Home
I wasn't actually subscribing to my own feed, though I WAS aware that often funny html would gum up some readers.
It seems that Firefox's Live Bookmarks stuff is also choking on my feed at the moment. I'll see what I can do to fix that.
I would recommend another reader in the meantime, except I don't actually use another one (Sage is SO convenient!)
It seems that Firefox's Live Bookmarks stuff is also choking on my feed at the moment. I'll see what I can do to fix that.
I would recommend another reader in the meantime, except I don't actually use another one (Sage is SO convenient!)
I've fixed my feed! Thanks for the heads up. I had some weird stuff plugged in there... I think I copied the text for the post that was causing the problems from an email I sent to someone here at the office - so I copy/pasted it from an Outlook email message which is always dangerous (though, it totally shouldn't be - stupid MS-Office)
For me, hands down, the best rss aggregator is RSSOwl (http://www.rssowl.org/). Built on top of the eclipse framework is a complete solution for handling all of your rss needs.
my two sense
Rob S.
Post a Comment
my two sense
Rob S.
# posted by 
: 4:07 p.m.
: 4:07 p.m. << Home
