A Guide to RSS Aggregators

One of the most popular features of Internet portals, websites, pages and even emails is a frame that features an organized list of news headlines and periodic updates from other web sources. Really Simple Syndication, formerly “Rich Site Summary” or simply, RSS makes this possible.

Most users visit a lot of websites whose content continually change, such as news sites, community organization or professional association information pages, medical websites, product support pages, and blogs. As Internet surfing became an intrinsic part of business and leisure, it became important to get rid of the very tedious task of repeatedly returning to each website to see updated content.

RSS easily distributes information from different websites to a wider number of Internet users. RSS aggregators are programs that use RSS to source these updates, and then organize those lists of headlines, content and notices for easy reading. It allows computers to automatically retrieve and read the content that users want, then track changes and personalize lists of headlines that interests them.

The specially made computer programs called “RSS aggregators” were created to automatically find and retrieve the RSS feeds of pre-selected internet sites on behalf of the user and organize the results accordingly. (RSS feeds and aggregators are also sometimes referred to as "RSS Channels" and "RSS Readers".)

The RSS aggregator is like a web browser for RSS content. HTML presents information directly to users, and RSS automatically lets computers communicate with one another. While users use browsers to surf the web then load and view each page of interest, RSS aggregators keeps track of changes to many websites. The titles or descriptions are links themselves and can be used to load the web page the user wants.

RSS starts with an original Web site that has content made available by the administrator. The website creates an RSS document and registers this content with an RSS publisher that will allow other websites to syndicate the documents. The Web site also produces an RSS feed, or channel, which is available together with all other resources or documents on the particular Web server. The website will register the feed as an RSS document, with a listed directory of appropriate RSS publishers.

An RSS feed is composed of website content listed from newest to oldest. Each item usually consists of a simple title describing the item along with a more complete description and a link to a web page with the actual content being described. In some instances, the short description or title line is the all the updated information that a user wants to read (for example, final games scores in sports, weblogs post, or stock updates). Therefore, it is not even necessary to have a web page associated with the content or update items listed -- sometimes all the needed information that users need would be in the titles and short summaries themselves.

The RSS content is located in a single file on a webpage in a manner not very different from typical web pages. The difference is that the information is written in the XML computer code for use by an RSS aggregator and not by a web user like a normal HTML page.

There are 2 main parts that are involved in RSS syndication, namely: the source end and the client end.

The client end of RSS publishing makes up part of the system that gathers and uses the RSS feed. For example, Mozilla FireFox browser is typically at the client end of the RSS transaction. A user’s desktop RSS aggregator program also belongs to the client end.

Once the URL of an RSS feed is known, a user can give that address to an RSS aggregator program and have the aggregator monitor the RSS feed for changes. Numerous RSS aggregators are already preconfigured with a ready list of RSS feed URLs for popular news or information websites that a user can simply choose from.

There are many RSS aggregators that can be used by all Internet users. Some can be accessed through the Internet, some are already incorporated into email applications, and others run as a standalone program inside the personal computer.

RSS feeds have evolved into many uses. Some uses gaining popularity are:

·For online store or retail establishments: Notification of new product arrivals
·For organization or association newsletters: title listings and notification of new issues, including email newsletters
·Weather Updates and other alerts of changing geographic conditions
·Database management: Notification of new items added, or new registered members to a club or interest group.

The uses of feeds will continue to grow, because RSS aggregators make access to any information that individual users like more convenient and fun.

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Tools for Monitoring the News

In our busy modern world, things can change at the blink of an eye. Part of getting ahead is being aware of the unique issues going on in the world right now, so you can make decisions based on the most accurate and up to date information.

There are many reasons you may need to know the latest news. People may need to know the latest political or economical events to make good business or investing decisions. People who want to buy a home or invest in real estate need to know the latest in trends and figures for this volatile market. Others may want to grasp stock trends so they can join the large number of in the know investors making a fortune from their intimate knowledge of the market. There are as many reasons for needing a tool to monitor the news as their are people.

Some people want to know the latest news because they try to project an image of being 'in the know'. Whether it is celebrity and entertainment news or information about politics, there is no better way to inspire confidence from others than to be the one who always has the latest and most accurate information. Finding a tool for monitoring the internet for news can make you a more trusted and believable source of information.

What is important is not your reason for needing the latest news updates so much as your actually finding the tools that you need. Regardless of your reason for wanting the latest news in the areas of your choice, there are a variety of tools for monitoring the news. There are several online services that will send regular updates to your email or your mobile phone. Some cost money, but most of these are free of charge. People can also subscribe to RSS feeds that give them the latest information. Google and other search engines are scouring the internet for the latest information, and many are unveiling new and improved tools for monitoring the news. As you can see, there is a huge range of options for people who need a constant influx of new information.

Whether you want the latest news information sent to email, a mobile device, or any other type of device, you are sure to feel satisfied by your options. There are so many companies offering this service that there is sure to be at least one that offers the perfect mix of news and customer service for you. These are available on the internet and many offer fast and easy set up.

Thanks to news monitoring tools, there is no reason to ever be the last one to find out an important piece of information. Being up to date is sure to give you an advantage in both your business and your personal life. Thanks to tools for monitoring the news, you can have this crucial edge for no money and no effort. There is no reason to be held back by a lack of information when the latest facts are so easy to find.

For more information on tool monitoring, visit http://www.toolmonitoring.org/

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The Evolution of RSS

What is RSS? It is a feed or a web feed that is used to publish frequently updated pages like blogs, news, audio web pages etc. The data format used here is XML. It has been evolving since March 2009. It is in the recent days that it is widely used.
RSS came in three versions. RSS 0.91 was called Rich Site Summary. RSS 0.9 and 1.0 was called RDF Site Summary. RSS 2.0 was called Really Simple Syndication.

As far the evolution goes, there were several attempts before RSS that was not widespread. Meta Content Framework was developed by Ramanathan. V. Guha et al in Apple Computer’s Advanced Technology group, by restructuring information.
The RSS 0.9 version was created by Guha at Netscape in March 1999 to be used in My.Netscape.Com portal. The version RSS 0.91 was created by Dan Libby simplifying the format by removing the RDF elements. IT incorporated News Syndication format by Dave Winer. Dan Libby renamed RSS to “Rich Site Summary”.

For eight years, Netscape did not participate in the evolution of RSS as it dropped RSS support to My.Netscape.Com in April 2001. AOL was the new owners of the company and they were restructuring it. There were a couple of entities called the RSS-DEV working group and Winer whose UserLand Software published tools outside Netscape that could read and write RSS. UserLand filed for a trademark registration inside U.S. It failed to satisfy USPTO request of the examiner and hence the proposal was rejected.

Guha and the representatives of O’Reilly Media started working on a project called the RSS-DEV working group. It produced RSS 1.0 in December 2000. It took the name RDF site summary and supported RDF and XML name spaces from metadata such as Dublin Corel

Winer released RSS0.9 which involved audio to be introduced in the feeds. It sparked on Pod casting. Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0) was released by Winer in September 2002, which was a totally new format. It removed the “type’ attribute and added namespace support/

Meanwhile due to the controversies of creation a new product called Alternative Syndication format (Atom) was formed. It is the proposed RFC 1287 format. RSS 2.0’s copyright specification was given to Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society. Winer, with Brent Simmons and Jon Udel started an RSS advisory board to answer questions bout the format.
In December 2005, The Microsoft Internet Explorer and Outlook team adopted the feed icon followed by Opera software. Thus, the commonly used symbol of an Orange box with white Radio waves came in to existence as the industry standard.

Rogers Cadenhead relaunched the RSS Advisory Board without Dave Winer in January 2006.It was done so that the development of RSS format was continued resolving ambiguities. In June 2007, board confirmed that the core elements with name space attributes were to be extended.
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