What the heck is RSS?

I hear this question a lot, and to some extent I sympathize with people when they intently listen ... pause ... and then go:

"but why would I want to do that?"

So considering I'm a big fan of RSS I thought I'd have a stab at it and see if I can add any clarity.

RSS lies somewhere between email, newsgroups, surfing and your own personal newspaper. It keeps you up to date with all the places and things you're interested in.

You use a special RSS program (called an aggrigator) to view RSS feeds. They appear like new email with you being alerted to changes, but based on what you subscribed to; which is similar to a newsgroup.

RSS itself is extremely simple, and basically just a headline alert. The real information, the real web page with the new information on is merely shown in your RSS program using an embedded browser. From the moment you receive an alert and interested enough to click through, you're back to good'ol web browsing.

So why would I want this?
Well that's the subtly I supposed. It's a bit like internet chat, buddy lists, tickers, alerts, email or SMS; once you've used it, you get it. It's all about simplicity.

So how did this all come about?
One guy kicking around an office noticed that every hour or so he used to trawl through the same set of web pages looking for changes. His favorites. Day-in, day-out.

Most of the time, nothing changed, leaving him repeating a relatively unproductive task. But what if all those beloved pages told him when they changed themselves? That, my friends, is the principle of RSS.

How the technical mumbo-jumbo to achieve this is done is quite irrelevant*. That's what a user sees, those are the benefits for the user.

So what are you waiting for? Go out there, find an RSS aggrigator program that fits your personality and start subscribing to websites that interest you. Start with mine! Such a top tip must be worth something right?

--- Justin.

*Techies around the world, don't flame. Yes yes it's a pull technology. Big whoop. Does the user really need to know this? Think about what they see, what they do and how they benefit.