About RSS

RSS or Really Simple Syndication (other definitions do exist) is a format which displays or publishes full or summarised text of frequently updated content like blog entries or news stories.

• 19 November 2008 | Updated 14 October 2011

RSS content is usually viewed through an RSS reader which can be an online service or a standalone piece of software on your computer, or through an RSS enabled web browser like Internet Explorer 7, Firefox or Safari.

This method of content delivery allows you to quickly see, via your web browser or RSS feed reader, if a website you subscribe to has been updated and allows you to view the updated content in a text-only form (sometimes with images) with the option of clicking through to the full content.

To get access to RSS feeds usually all you need to do is select the link and your browser or default feed reader will do the rest for you.

If you no longer want to view a particular feed you can unsubscribe from the feed which removes the feed and deletes any associated content.

Some popular RSS feed readers:

• FeedDemon (Windows) [external link]
• NetNewsWire (Mac) [external link]
• NewsGator (online) [external link]
• Bloglines (online) [external link]
• Google Reader (online) [external link]
• My Yahoo! (online) [external link].

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