How to read RSS feeds

Robert Vamosi CNET

Published: 20 Jul 2004

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RSS glossary


Blog
A blog is a public Web site with personal posts ordered so that the most recent is always first. Often these posts are also archived and searchable. Posts may come from one or many individuals, and the messages often share a common theme. The most recent blogs posted, with links and a brief description, are available via RSS.

Channels
These are XML links to new articles or blogs. Sometimes called a feed.

Feeds
These are XML documents used for Web syndication, often with links to new articles or blog posts and brief descriptions. Sometimes called a channel.

Proxy server
An indirect means of connecting to the Internet. A desktop connects to a server, which then connects to the Internet. Sometimes this is done to filter content or intercept viruses before they infect an internal network. If you are connecting to the Internet via a proxy server, you will need to make some changes in your RSS reader configuration.

RSS or Really Simple Syndication
This is an XML-based Web syndication tool for Web sites and blogs. RSS repackages new content with information such as a date, a title, a link and a brief description. An RSS Reader then interprets this feed so that the user need only read the description and link to the news story or blog post. Originally developed in the late 1990s for my.netscape.com, it was further developed by O'Reilly and Associates and published with a Creative Commons license through Harvard University.

XML (eXtensible Markup Language)
A markup language that describes many different kinds of data so that programs can modify and validate data. Its primary purpose is to share structured text over the Internet.

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