RSS
RSS (Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary) is a method through which you are notified when web content changes. Web syndication refers to making available or allowing users to subscribe to (i.e. syndicating) data in a certain format (i.e. (web) feeds), in order to provide them with a summary of a website's recently added content.
Several web sites nowadays provide RSS automatically. RSS feeds (or the presence of an RSS feed on a site) is marked by the standard RSS symbol (shown at the right) or a customized RSS symbol.
Syndicated web content includes news headlines, blogs, wikis. Sites which don't provide an RSS feed can also be monitored by using a web-page-to-rss scraper service (these are mentioned at the end of this section).
RSS feeds can be monitored in various ways: you can use a browser (and/or browser add-ons), online monitoring services, or desktop applications. Some of these tools are listed below. If you don't manage too many RSS feeds, you can use a browser add-on or a web-based aggregator; if you want to monitor many RSS feeds, you should go for a desktop application.
Related terms in connection with RSS:
- RSS-related concepts:
- An rss document is also referred to as feed, web feed or channel
- RSS readers:
- feed reader, RSS feed reader
- aggregator, feed aggregator, RSS feed aggregator, RSS news aggregator
Further general information about RSS:
- RSS: What is it? Where to get it? How to make it? How to use it? by Robert Teeter.
- RSS learning center at newsgate.com
- RSS explained in about 3 minutes at demogirl.com [2008-01-24]
- Video: RSS in plain English at commoncraft.com
Browser add-ons for monitoring RSS feeds
Brief (for Firefox)
Firefox Live Bookmarks
- Live Bookmarks is a feature built into Firefox. With Live Bookmarks you can see the headlines of an RSS feed in your bookmarks.
- How-to: Live Bookmarks section in the Firefox Bookmarks Tutoriall at the Mozilla website.
Sage (for Firefox)
Wizz (for Firefox)
Web-based aggregators
Bloglines
Google Reader
Connect- How-to
- A quick tour of Google Reader at google.com
- How to use Google Reader: webcast by Andy Wibbels
Netvibes
- Connect
- How-to: Netvibes tutorial by Masey
NewsGator Online
- Connect
- public feed collection, organized by folder
Desktop applications for monitoring RSS feeds
FeedDemon (free, Win)
Flock (free, Mac/Win/Linux)
- Connect
- Flock is a "social web browser": it has the features of an ordinary web browser, plus a feed reader, plus some extensions which let you connect with social services such as Flickr, Facebook, and others.
- How-to: A newbie's guide to Flock on webware.com.
NetNewsWire (free, Mac)
Surfpack (free, Win)
- Connect
- Surfpack is a package of web modules including an RSS reader and a bookmarks manager.
- About: info at surfpack.com
Synonyms:
Social bookmarking services allow you to store your bookmarks online and organize them (categorize them on the basis of tags). These bookmarks are usually shared (public), but you can also save them privately. Most services provide a 'bookmarklet', a browser plugin which makes it possible to add a site to your list with one (or a few) click(s). Extra functionalities include annotation, different ways to visualize your bookmarks (list, tag cloud), archiving of web snippets (especially text clippings and images this is sometimes referred to as online content sharing).
Within the framework of information literacy, social bookmaring can be seen as a type of 'social information retrieval'. 'Information retrieval' is a central aspect of information literacy (the aspect that is focussed on in this part of the lx toolbox site. The other dimension of social bookmarking is that it is 'social'. In this respect it belongs to the area of social web tools (which also includes social content sharing applications (such as the well-known photo sharing service Flickr and video sharing service YouTube ), social networking services (MySpace, Facebook, etc.)
del.icio.us was the first social bookmarking service and is probably the most popular one. Various plugins and third party tools have been developed to enhance it with further functionalities.
How to:
Further lists, information and comparisons: