RSS - What Is This?
The Orange XML Button
You may have come across these funny looking little orange buttons (a.k.a. chicklets) and wondered what they are? This Webpage is an attempt to explain what they are and how you can use them and a USM client to better enjoy the Web.
Table of Contents
What is RSS?
The orange buttons link to a file, called an RSS file. This RSS file is a computer readable description of the human readable Webpage you are reading. Applications can use these files to notify you when new content is available on this Webpage.
Click Me
Clicking on the orange buttons will usually cause the RSS file to be rendered in your browser. As this sometimes results in unreadable garbage to most users, I use the services of feedburner to further present the material in human-friendly format and explain to the user what can be done with it. When you click on the orange button, you will be presented with a list of options that allow you to include contents of my blog into your accounts with:
- My Yahoo
- My MSN
- Blog Line
- NewsGator
- Your own private news aggregator installed on your computer
The services of feedburner are so great they will also automatically configure the news aggregation program installed on your computer to read my blog, using the Universal Subscription Mechanism (USM). if you install an RSS reader that supports USM, then clicking “Subscripe using USM” button will signal your RSS reader to handle news coming from my weblog. It should ask you, before doing that of course.
RSS Readers
There are hundrades of RSS readers out there. It is impossible to list them all. FeedDemon seems to be the one everybody loves. But then, love is a relative issue. Following is a list of some readers that support USM.
What is USM?
USM is the protocol used to convert a click on an RSS file into a registration
request with an RSS reader. The protocol is described here
More information
The net is obviously full of articles about RSS feeds. A simple google search will reveal many hits. One of these hits is the excelent introduction to RSS by feedburners.