You may have come across links on web sites that appear either as an orange graphic with the letters XML, or perhaps a link which says RSS, Atom, or Syndication. When you click the link you get garbage – it appears to be mix of code and text, and looks like the link is broken.
In fact the link is not broken. It is a syndicated feed of the information that the site owner wants to make available in an easier manner than the normal searching of the site.
Let’s suppose that there is a site which you visit regularly because it regularly has information which interests you. But you don’t want to have to check every day just to find that it hasn’t been updated. This is where syndication comes in. With a feed reader you can check to see if new information has been added to the site without you having to visit it with your browser. So you only go to the site when something new has been added.
First you need a feed reader. There are a number of them around for all the different platforms. If you are using the Firefox browser then there is one, perhaps more, plugins or extensions which will get feeds within while you are in your browser. I have the plugin Sage installed in my Firefox browser.
There are other feed readers you can use which are separate from your browser, and many people find these better suit their needs. One of most popular is FeedDemon from Bradbury Software. It isn’t free, but it is relatively cheap and it is a very good feed reader. There are also free readers available. One which I have used is SharpReader. Whichever reader you use the principle is the same. You drag, or copy, the RSS or Atom, or XML link to the address bar of the reader and the reader will then check the sites for updated content.
For example, on this site the RSS link is to
http://www.midnightsoftware.com.au/index.php/
articles/general?theme=rss
The feed reader will go to this address and present you with a list of titles and summaries of articles. If any of them interest you then you click the title and are taken to this site to read the article. If nothing has been updated then the reader will bypass this site.
I have 20 or more site which I regularly check out through my feed reader. Sometimes I delete sites, and sometimes I add others. Some sites do not have new content very often, but when they do I don’t want to miss it. And I never have to go the actual site just to see if something has been added.
RSS has been around for quite a while. There are a number of versions, and a few different formats. But most feed readers can handle the different formats, and a number of sites publish in more than one format.
If you regularly check out different sites for information then using a feed reader could save you a lot of time. And if you publish information you should consider making it available in RSS or Atom format.