Introduction to RSS
You may have heard the term RSS online and may be wondering what it is. Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is an XML format designed for sharing website content such as news, headlines, articles and more. You can think of it as a distributable “What’s New” for your site. RSS allows you to add content to your site on any number of topics or subjects. In addition, if youwrite articles or other web content, you can allow others to use your RSS feeds and display your content on their websites.
Originated by UserLand in 1997 and subsequently used by Netscape to fill channels for Netcenter, RSS has evolved into a popular means of sharing content between sites (including the BBC, CNET, CNN, Disney, Forbes, Motley Fool, Wired, Red Herring, Salon, Slashdot, ZDNet, and more). RSS solves myriad problems webmasters commonly face, such as increasing traffic, and gathering and distributing news. RSS can also be the basis for additional content distribution services.
RSS defines an XML grammar (a set of HTML-like tags) for sharing news. Each RSS text file contains both static information about your site, plus dynamic information about your new stories, all surrounded by matching start and end tags.
Each story is defined by an <item> tag, which contains a headline TITLE, URL, and DESCRIPTION.
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