Resources - Articles - Everything About RSS

If you've heard the word RSS flying around, but you are not quite sure what it is, how it works, or how it is supposed to be used then this article is definitely for you.

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and it's a really cool emerging XML (Extensible Markup Language) based technology that allows anyone to subscribe to news or information feeds from their favorite websites. RSS is used on blogs, corporate websites, and news websites (ex. CNN,Yahoo, Globe and Mail, CBC).

Perhaps the best way to explain RSS is just to give a simple example. Every morning when I wake up I like to read news headlines, and I like reading news from a diverse range of topics. I start off reading by news about the lastest and greatest stuff in the tech industry, then I progress to reading my favorite Dilbert comics, and then I catchup on everything that is new in business and in the world. Prior to the invention of RSS I was getting my news by visiting around 6–7 different websites every morning, and having to filter through advertisements and poor navigation to find the content I was looking for. RSS was the tool that simplified my morning news reading by 600%. Now I get my morning news through a free program called NetNewsWire Lite 2.0 for Mac OS X. There are of course similar programs for Microsoft Windows such as Feedreader or Mozilla Thunderbird.

RSS in action


Now as you can see here in the left column are a list of all the RSS feeds I subscribe to and I've placed all the news that relates to the IT industry in an IT folder, and all the news that relates to the rest of the world in the News folder. I can quickly scan articles of interest based on the headlines in the top right pane, and once I've found a headline that looks interesting I just click on it and it provides me with a short description of what that article is about. If I want further information I just click on the name of the article and it opens the article in my internet browser. Once I have read a news item it becomes grayed out so I know which articles I have read and which I have not read, and the best part of it all is that it downloads new articles as soon as they are available so I'm always up to date with what's current (hence the term syndicated).

The world is moving at a faster pace every day, but with RSS and the ability to quickly scan headlines I've certainly become much more informed in much less time.

Zero One and RSS

So now that you have learned a little about RSS and you've downloaded and installed your first RSS reader, you are wondering how to subscribe to news feeds, and why Zero One has an RSS feed.

Zero One has an RSS feed to keep our customers and our affiliates up to date with what's going on in our design studio, and also to provide you with up to date news with everything we have available in our resources section

So now comes the question... how does one subscribe? Well on most websites you will notice the XML logo which means that RSS is available. Upon clicking the orange XML logo the feed will either be automatically added to your favorite RSS newsreader, or you will have to copy the link and paste it into your RSS reader after hitting the subscribe button.(See below)

RSS in action


RSS Readers

Below is a list of RSS readers that can be downloaded and installed on a variety of platforms. Some are free, and some are not, but you should certainly be able to find something that you like.


More Information

For more information available on RSS and it's history, check out Wikipedia.

If you have any questions about RSS or Zero One Design please contact us at zeroone@zeroonedesign.com




Stuart Bowness (stuart@zeroonedesign.com) works for Zero One Web Design as a web developer and is an advocate for both open standards and open source technology. Stuart holds a BSc in Computer Information Systems.


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