What is RSS

[florida]

What actually is an RSS feed?

Is it a live update of information that constantly gets updated without loading the web page and it is made up of XML?

[puneetarora]

yeah it is just like an xml and mostly it is used for news feeds.. just like u have rss, google has atom feeds...

[Eye for Video]

Well sort of…..Think of RSS as an Internet channel which special “news readers” and modern Web browsers (IE7 yes…IE6 no) go and check for updated information. Like “Hey you guys, got any new info on this site?”. That “reading” ability is required or the viewer will simply see a page full of xml code.
These RSS feeds or Internet channels can be subscribed to, meaning that your Web browser of RSS reader will automatically tune in that channel, check for new content, and let you know if there is anything new since the last time you checked. Once you subscribe, without you actually visiting the site, your news reader (or browser) will let you know if there is any new content. That is the only “automatic” part. An RSS feed may or may not be updated by the publisher on a regular basis.
The .xml file typically uses a short description of the subject and provides a link to the full text article, audio file, or even a video file. Great invention…a lot of work to maintain.
EfV

[Mr. E. Cryptic]

Yes it's an implimentation of XML, stands for Really Simple Syndication, and is a way for visitors to your site to 'subscribe' to updates - taking most web-users' bad short-term memory out of the loop when it comes to remembering that your site exists.

a lot of work to maintain

If used in conjunction with server-side scripting it can, however, cut out a lot of other work. For instance, in PHP you could use simplexml and a foreach loop to quickly parse a feed and build the news page of your site. Or, you might have the latest news item on your home page, the 4 latest items in your side bar and a page with all news items. All you'd have to do is update the RSS (.xml) file and all 3 instances of news presentation would be updated dynamicly.

Along with the above, the feed can also be used in similar fashion by other sites that would like to display your news items.

Oh, and it should be mentioned that there are different types of RSS, and different types of feeds in general (eg: atom)

[Eye for Video]

Yes, your point is well taken. I was referring to the constant creation of new content. I've seen many sites use RSS feeds thinking it's such a cool thing to have on their site, yet they fail to realize that if they get people to subscribe, they need to constantly provide new content. That's the hard part for many Web site owners.....not all, but many.
I've got a feed from my site and it's difficult to keep up with providing new content. Now if I could just automate that part....hhummmmm.....
Best wishes,
EfV