How do rss readers work

The content you can get via RSS feeds isn't just text: Depending on the kind of feed it is, you might get images, audio and video. When you subscribe to a podcast in iTunes, you're subscribing to a feed -- you're just doing it in a different environment. And some Web-based e-mail readers will let you subscribe to a feed to get your mail. RSS isn't really that different from a normal Web site. In fact, they're the same in one respect: Both are simple text files on Web servers.

Unlike writing computer-programming code, most writing in a markup language like RDF involves putting tags around existing copy. For example, to make text bold in HTML, you would just enclose your sentence in a pair of tags: and.

The Web browser on your computer knows how to interpret these tags, because they're based on a set of industry-accepted standards. Since RSS is based on XML, however, the document contains information that tells the aggregator where to look for the standard upon which it's based. It's an extra step that happens on the back end and is invisible to you as you view an RSS feed.

RSS tags tell your aggregator how to display the feed on your screen. In addition to the size of the font and other details, RSS tags also include the name of the creator of the feed, the date it was published, when the feed was updated and more useful information that helps you decide which articles to select from the feed and read in full. So what happens if you want to add an RSS feed to your existing blog? Many common blogging tools such as Blogger, Vox, Movable Type and WordPress have the ability to syndicate your weblog in RSS, without your having to learn how to write code.

These weblog programs include everything needed to publish a feed: the address, title, meta and other necessary information are all included for you. Of course, news organizations and other Web sites that publish with their own proprietary systems have to build RSS into their Web code.

You can do this, too, though it will involve learning how to write a programming language. Then again, if you already know languages such as C , you're probably the kind of person who would prefer to write your own feed. Atom 1. Sign up for our Newsletter! Mobile Newsletter banner close. Mobile Newsletter chat close. Mobile Newsletter chat dots. Mobile Newsletter chat avatar. Mobile Newsletter chat subscribe.

Internet Basics. How RSS Works. The Name's Been Changed. Please Make a Note Of It. RSS Reader " ". NewsGator's FeedDemon aggregator software for Windows gives you many ways to sort and read news feeds. Google Reader is one of many feed readers available on the Web. More Than News. All About Atom. They detect the additions and present them all together to you in a compact and useful manner. If the title and description of an item are of interest, the link can be used to quickly bring the related web page up for reading.

Here is a screen shot of an RSS aggregator in action. On the left is a list of the RSS feeds being monitored, along with an indication of the number of unread items in each feed in parenthesis. There are many RSS aggregators available. Some are accessed through a browser, some are integrated into email programs, and some run as a standalone application on your personal computer.

It is getting more and more common for websites to have RSS feeds. They usually indicate the existence of the feed on the home page or main news page with a link to "RSS", or sometimes by displaying an orange button with the letters "XML" or "RSS".

RSS feeds are also often found via a "Syndicate This" link. Text "RSS" links sometimes there are lots of variations point to a web page explaining the nature of the RSS feeds provided and how to find them. The buttons are often linked directly to the RSS feed file itself.

Unless you are maintaining a website or want to create your own RSS feed for some other purpose, how the RSS feed is produced should not be of concern and you may skip this section. Most large news websites and most weblogs are maintained using special "content management" programs. Authors add their stories and postings to the website by interacting with those programs and then use the program's "publish" facility to create the HTML files that make up the website.

Those programs often also can update the RSS feed XML file at the same time, adding an item referring to the new story or post, and removing less recent items. Websites that are produced in a more custom manner, such as with Macromedia Dreamweaver or a simple text editor, usually do not automatically create RSS feeds.

Authors of such websites either maintain the XML files by hand, just as they do the website itself, or use a tool such as Software Garden, Inc. RSS is the best way to stay updated with your favorite content.

Hopefully we can help you find good one that suits your specific needs. Most RSS feed readers work in a similar manner. You give it a list of feeds and it gives you a list of posts. Because of the openness of the RSS standard many developers have built an RSS reader as a pet project and released to the world. For example when browsing blogs you might want large images and a Pinterest-style column layout.

Take mobile for example, you can get push notifications from certain apps, but also e-mail notifications. The same thing goes for desktop: It could be a native push notification, an e-mail notification, a browser extension or a web page that sends notifications. Notifications can also be configured in many, many ways. For example sound notifications, vibrations or sticky notifications. Most commonly web-based feed readers will be a webpage where your feeds and posts are listed.

We recommend just giving a quick Google search to find, or trying Feeder. There is a whole range of pricings as well, from free to paid, trials, no trials and ad-supported.