RSS (abbreviation for Really Simple Syndication) is a family of Web feed
Web feed
A web feed is a data format used for providing users with frequently updated content. Content distributors syndicate a web feed, thereby allowing users to subscribe to it.... formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video.... entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format. An RSS document (which is called a "feed", "web feed", or "channel") includes full or summarized text, plus metadata
Metadata
Metadata is "data about other data", of any sort in any media. An item of metadata may describe an individual datum, or content item, or a collection of data including multiple content items and hierarchical levels, for example a database schema.... such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically.
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RSS (abbreviation for Really Simple Syndication) is a family of Web feed
Web feed
A web feed is a data format used for providing users with frequently updated content. Content distributors syndicate a web feed, thereby allowing users to subscribe to it.... formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video.... entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format. An RSS document (which is called a "feed", "web feed", or "channel") includes full or summarized text, plus metadata
Metadata
Metadata is "data about other data", of any sort in any media. An item of metadata may describe an individual datum, or content item, or a collection of data including multiple content items and hierarchical levels, for example a database schema.... such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds can be read using software called an "RSS reader", "feed reader", or "aggregator
Aggregator
In computing, a feed aggregator, also known as a feed reader, news reader or simply aggregator, is client or a Web application which aggregates Web Syndication such as news headlines, blogs, Podcasting, and vlogs in a single location for easy viewing.... ", which can be web-based
Web application
In software engineering, a web application or webapp is an Application software that is accessed via web browser over a network such as the Internet or an intranet.... , desktop-based
Application software
Application software is any tool that functions and is operated by means of a computer, with the purpose of supporting or improving the software user 's work.... , mobile device or any computerized Internet-connected device. A standardized XML file format allows the information to be published once and viewed by many different programs. The user subscribes to a feed by entering the feed's URI
Uniform Resource Identifier
In Information technology, a Uniform Resource Identifier is a Character string of Character s used to Identifier or name a Resource on the Internet.... (often referred to informally as a "URL" (uniform resource locater), although technically, those two terms are not exactly synonymous) into the reader or by clicking an RSS icon in a browser that initiates the subscription process. The RSS reader checks the user's subscribed feeds regularly for new work, downloads any updates that it finds, and provides a user interface
User interface
The user interface is the aggregate of means by which people—the User s—Interaction with the system—a particular machine, device, computer program or other complex tools.... to monitor and read the feeds.
RSS formats are specified using XML, a generic specification for the creation of data formats. Although RSS formats have evolved since March 1999, the RSS icon ("") first gained widespread use between 2005 and 2006.
History
The RSS formats were preceded by several attempts at web syndication that did not achieve widespread popularity. The basic idea of restructuring information about websites goes back to as early as 1995, when Ramanathan V. Guha
Ramanathan V. Guha
Ramanathan V. Guha is an Indian Computer science. He graduated from Indian Institute of Technology Madras. Since May 2005, he has been working at Google.... and others in Apple Computer
Apple Computer
Apple Inc., formerly Apple Computer Inc., is an United States multinational corporation which designs and manufactures consumer electronics and software products.... 's Advanced Technology Group developed the Meta Content Framework
Meta Content Framework
Meta Content Framework was a specification of a format for structuring metadata about web sites and other data. MCF was developed by Ramanathan V.... . For a more detailed discussion of these early developments, see the history of web syndication technology
History of web syndication technology
This article is specifically dedicated to the history of web syndication technology and, more generally, to the history of technical innovation on many dialects of web feed such as RSS and Atom , as well as earlier variants such as CDF and more recent innovations like GData.... .
RDF Site Summary, the first version of RSS, was created by Guha
Ramanathan V. Guha
Ramanathan V. Guha is an Indian Computer science. He graduated from Indian Institute of Technology Madras. Since May 2005, he has been working at Google.... at Netscape in March 1999 for use on the My.Netscape.Com portal. This version became known as RSS 0.9. In July 1999, Dan Libby of Netscape produced a new version, RSS 0.91,
which simplified the format by removing RDF
Resource Description Framework
The Resource Description Framework is a family of World Wide Web Consortium specifications originally designed as a metadata data model. It has come to be used as a general method for conceptual description or modeling, of information that is implemented in web resources; using a variety of syntax formats.... elements and incorporating elements from Dave Winer
Dave Winer
Dave Winer is an United States software developer and entrepreneur in Berkeley, California, California. A pioneer in the areas of RSS as "Really Simple Syndication", XML-RPC, OPML, outliners, and the MetaWeblog API, he is also the author of , one of the oldest Blog, established in 1997.... 's scriptingNews syndication format.
Libby also renamed RSS "Rich Site Summary" and outlined further development of the format in a "futures document".
This would be Netscape's last participation in RSS development for eight years. As RSS was being embraced by web publishers who wanted their feeds to be used on My.Netscape.Com and other early RSS portals, Netscape dropped RSS support from My.Netscape.Com in April 2001 during new owner AOL's restructuring of the company, also removing documentation and tools that supported the format.
Two entities emerged to fill the void, with neither Netscape's help nor approval: The RSS-DEV Working Group
RSS-DEV Working Group
The RSS-DEV Working Group was the outgrowth of a fork in RSS format development. The private, non-commercial working group began with a dozen members in three countries, and was chaired by Rael Dornfest, researcher and developer of the Meerkat RSS-reader software.... and Winer, whose UserLand Software
UserLand Software
UserLand Software is a United States software company founded by Dave Winer in 1988. UserLand sells Web content management and blogging software packages and services.... had published some of the first publishing tools outside of Netscape that could read and write RSS.
Winer published a modified version of the RSS 0.91 specification on the UserLand website, covering how it was being used in his company's products, and claimed copyright to the document. A few months later, UserLand filed a U.S. trademark registration for RSS, but failed to respond to a USPTO trademark examiner's request and the request was rejected in December 2001.
The RSS-DEV Working Group was the outgrowth of a fork in RSS format development. The private, non-commercial working group began with a dozen members in three countries, and was chaired by Rael Dornfest, researcher and developer of the Meerkat RSS-reader software.... , a project whose members included Guha and representatives of O'Reilly Media
O'Reilly Media
O'Reilly Media is an American Mass media company established by Tim O'Reilly that publishes books and web sites and produces conferences on computer technology topics.... and Moreover, produced RSS 1.0 in December 2000. This new version, which reclaimed the name RDF Site Summary from RSS 0.9, reintroduced support for RDF and added XML namespaces support, adopting elements from standard metadata vocabularies such as Dublin Core
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is a standard for cross-domain information Resource description. It provides a simple and standardised set of conventions for describing things online in ways that make them easier to find.... .
In December 2000, Winer released RSS 0.92
a minor set of changes aside from the introduction of the enclosure element, which permitted audio files to be carried in RSS feeds and helped spark podcasting. He also released drafts of RSS 0.93 and RSS 0.94 that were subsequently withdrawn.
In September 2002, Winer released a major new version of the format, RSS 2.0, that redubbed its initials Really Simple Syndication. RSS 2.0 removed the type attribute added in the RSS 0.94 draft and added support for namespaces.
Because neither Winer nor the RSS-DEV Working Group had Netscape's involvement, they could not make an official claim on the RSS name or format. This has fueled ongoing controversy in the syndication development community as to which entity was the proper publisher of RSS.
One product of that contentious debate was the creation of an alternative syndication format, Atom, that began in June 2003. The Atom syndication format, whose creation was in part motivated by a desire to get a clean start free of the issues surrounding RSS, has been adopted as IETF Proposed Standard RFC 4287.
The Berkman Center for Internet & Society is a research center founded at Harvard Law School that focuses on the legal study of cyberspace. As of May 15, 2008 the Center was elevated to an interfaculty initiative of Harvard University.... , where he had just begun a term as a visiting fellow. At the same time, Winer launched the RSS Advisory Board
RSS Advisory board
The RSS Advisory Board is a group founded in July 2003 that publishes the RSS 0.9, RSS 0.91 and RSS 2.0 specifications and helps developers create RSS applications.... with Brent Simmons and Jon Udell
Jon udell
Jon Udell is an "Technology evangelist" at Microsoft. Previously he was lead analyst for the Infoworld Test Center.Udell is author of Practical Internet Groupware, published in 1999 by O'Reilly Media, and is an advisor to O'Reilly's Safari Tech Books Online.... , a group whose purpose was to maintain and publish the specification and answer questions about the format.
In December 2005, the Microsoft Internet Explorer team and
Outlook team announced on their blogs that they were adopting the feed icon first used in the Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox is a web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation. Official versions are distributed under the terms of the proprietary EULA.... browser
Web browser
A Web browser is a application software which enables a user to display and interact with text, images, videos, music, games and other information typically located on a Web page at a website on the World Wide Web or a local area network.... . A few months later, Opera Software
Opera Software
Opera Software is a Norwegian corporation, primarily known for its Opera family of web browsers. Opera Software is also involved in promoting Web standards through participation in the World Wide Web Consortium.... followed suit. This effectively made the orange square with white radio waves the industry standard for RSS and Atom feeds, replacing the large variety of icons and text that had been used previously to identify syndication data.
Rogers Cadenhead is a computer book author and web publisher who is currently chairman of the RSS Advisory Board, a group that assists developers in using the RSS 2.0 specification.... relaunched the RSS Advisory Board without Dave Winer's participation, with a stated desire to continue the development of the RSS format and resolve ambiguities. In June 2007, the board revised their version of the specification to confirm that namespaces may extend core elements with namespace attributes, as Microsoft has done in Internet Explorer 7. According to their view, a difference of interpretation left publishers unsure of whether this was permitted or forbidden.
Variants
As noted above, there are several different versions of RSS, falling into two major branches (RDF and 2.*). The RDF, or RSS 1.* branch includes the following versions:
RSS 0.90 was the original Netscape RSS version. This RSS was called RDF
Resource Description Framework
The Resource Description Framework is a family of World Wide Web Consortium specifications originally designed as a metadata data model. It has come to be used as a general method for conceptual description or modeling, of information that is implemented in web resources; using a variety of syntax formats.... Site Summary, but was based on an early working draft of the RDF standard, and was not compatible with the final RDF Recommendation.
The RSS-DEV Working Group was the outgrowth of a fork in RSS format development. The private, non-commercial working group began with a dozen members in three countries, and was chaired by Rael Dornfest, researcher and developer of the Meerkat RSS-reader software.... , again standing for RDF Site Summary. RSS 1.0 is an RDF format like RSS 0.90, but not fully compatible with it, since 1.0 is based on the final RDF 1.0 Recommendation.
RSS 1.1 is also an open format and is intended to update and replace RSS 1.0. The specification is an independent draft not supported or endorsed in any way by the RSS-Dev Working Group or any other organization.
The RSS 2.* branch (initially UserLand, now Harvard) includes the following versions:
RSS 0.91 is the simplified RSS version released by Netscape, and also the version number of the simplified version originally championed by Dave Winer
Dave Winer
Dave Winer is an United States software developer and entrepreneur in Berkeley, California, California. A pioneer in the areas of RSS as "Really Simple Syndication", XML-RPC, OPML, outliners, and the MetaWeblog API, he is also the author of , one of the oldest Blog, established in 1997.... from Userland Software. The Netscape version was now called Rich Site Summary; this was no longer an RDF format, but was relatively easy to use.
RSS 0.92 through 0.94 are expansions of the RSS 0.91 format, which are mostly compatible with each other and with Winer's version of RSS 0.91, but are not compatible with RSS 0.90. In all Userland RSS 0.9x specifications, RSS was no longer an acronym.
RSS 2.0.1 has the internal version number 2.0. RSS 2.0.1 was proclaimed to be "frozen", but still updated shortly after release without changing the version number. RSS now stood for Really Simple Syndication. The major change in this version is an explicit extension mechanism using XML namespaces.
In technology, for example in telecommunications and computing, a device or technology is said to be backwards compatible if it allows input generated by older devices.... with earlier versions (aside from non-conformant RDF syntax in 0.90), and both versions include properly documented extension mechanisms using XML Namespaces, either directly (in the 2.* branch) or through RDF (in the 1.* branch). Most syndication software supports both branches. , an article written in 2004 by RSS critic and Atom
Atom (standard)
The name Atom applies to a pair of related standards. The Atom Syndication Format is an XML language used for web feeds, while the Atom Publishing Protocol is a simple []-based protocol for creating and updating web resources.... advocate Mark Pilgrim
Mark Pilgrim
Mark Pilgrim is the author of Dive into Python, a guide to the Python and popular blogger. He is an advocate of Free Software and Dive into Python is published under the GNU Free Documentation License.... , discusses RSS version compatibility issues in more detail.
The extension mechanisms make it possible for each branch to track innovations in the other. For example, the RSS 2.* branch was the first to support enclosures, making it the current leading choice for podcasting, and is the format supported for that use by iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a Proprietary software digital media media player application, used for playing and organizing digital music and video files. The program is also an interface to manage the contents on Apple's popular iPod digital media players as well as the iPhone.... and other podcasting software; however, an enclosure extension is now available for the RSS 1.* branch, . Likewise, the RSS 2.* core specification does not support providing full-text in addition to a synopsis, but the RSS 1.* markup can be (and often is) used as an extension. There are also several common outside extension packages available, including a new proposal from Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is a multinational corporation computer technology corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of computer software products for computing devices.... for use in Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer
Windows Internet Explorer , commonly abbreviated to IE, is a series of graphical user interface web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems starting in 1995.... 7.
The most serious compatibility problem is with HTML markup. Userland's RSS reader—generally considered as the reference implementation—did not originally filter out HTML
HTML
HTML, an Acronym and initialism of HyperText Markup Language, is the predominant markup language for Web pages. It provides a means to describe the structure of text-based information in a document?by denoting certain text as links, headings, paragraphs, lists, and so on?and to supplement that text with interactive forms, embedded '... markup from feeds. As a result, publishers began placing HTML markup into the titles and descriptions of items in their RSS feeds. This behavior has become expected of readers, to the point of becoming a de facto
De facto
De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning the fact" or in practice but not necessarily ordained by law. It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or technique that are found in the common experience as created or developed without or contrary to a regulation.... standard, though there is still some inconsistency in how software handles this markup, particularly in titles. The RSS 2.0 specification was later updated to include examples of entity-encoded HTML; however, all prior plain text usages remain valid.
, tracking data from www.syndic8.com indicates that the three main versions of RSS in current use are 0.91, 1.0, and 2.0. Of these, RSS 0.91 accounts for 13 percent of worldwide RSS usage and RSS 2.0 for 67 percent, while RSS 1.0 has a 17 percent share. These figures, however, do not include usage of the rival web feed format Atom
Atom (standard)
The name Atom applies to a pair of related standards. The Atom Syndication Format is an XML language used for web feeds, while the Atom Publishing Protocol is a simple []-based protocol for creating and updating web resources.... . , the syndic8.com website is indexing 546,069 total feeds, of which 86,496 were some dialect of Atom and 438,102 were some dialect of RSS.
Modules
The primary objective of all RSS modules is to extend the basic XML schema established for more robust syndication of content. This inherently allows for more diverse, yet standardized, transactions without modifying the core RSS specification.
To accomplish this extension, a tightly controlled vocabulary (in the RSS world, "module"; in the XML world, "schema") is declared through an XML namespace
XML Namespace
XML namespaces are used for providing uniquely named elements and attributes in an XML instance. They are defined by a W3C recommendation called Namespaces in XML.... to give names to concepts and relationships between those concepts.
Some RSS 2.0 modules with established namespaces are:
A peer-to-peer computer network uses diverse connectivity between participants in a network and the cumulative bandwidth of network participants rather than conventional centralized resources where a relatively low number of Server s provide the core value to a service or application.... applications also support RSS. Such feeds (also known as Torrent/RSS-es or Torrentcasts) allow client applications to download files automatically from the moment the RSS reader detects them (also known as Broadcatching
Broadcatching
Broadcatching is the downloading of digital content that has been made available over the Internet using RSS syndication.The general idea is to use an automated mechanism to aggregate various web feeds and download content for viewing or presentation purposes.... ).
Examples
RSS 1.0
The following is an example of an RSS Feed 1.0 file (the quoted strings are in red font).
XML.com
http://xml.com/pub
XML.com features a rich mix of information and services
for the XML community.
Processing Inclusions with XSLT
http://xml.com/pub/2000/08/09/xslt/xslt.html
Processing document inclusions with general XML tools can be
problematic. This article proposes a way of preserving inclusion
information through SAX-based processing.
Putting RDF to Work
http://xml.com/pub/2000/08/09/rdfdb/index.html
Tool and API support for the Resource Description Framework
is slowly coming of age. Edd Dumbill takes a look at RDFDB,
one of the most exciting new RDF toolkits.
Search XML.comSearch XML.com's XML collections
http://search.xml.com
RSS 2.0
The following is an example of an RSS 2.0 file (strings in red font).
Lift Off News
http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/
Liftoff to Space Exploration.en-usTue, 10 Jun 2003 04:00:00 GMTTue, 10 Jun 2003 09:41:01 GMThttp://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rssWeblog Editor 2.0editor@example.comwebmaster@example.com5
Star City
http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/news/2003/news-starcity.asp
How do Americans get ready to work with Russians aboard the
International Space Station? They take a crash course in culture, language
and protocol at Russia's Star City.Tue, 03 Jun 2003 09:39:21 GMThttp://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/2003/06/03.html#item573
Space Exploration
http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/
Sky watchers in Europe, Asia, and parts of Alaska and Canada
will experience a partial eclipse of the Sun on Saturday, May 31.Fri, 30 May 2003 11:06:42 GMThttp://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/2003/05/30.html#item572
The Engine That Does More
http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/news/2003/news-VASIMR.asp
Before man travels to Mars, NASA hopes to design new engines
that will let us fly through the Solar System more quickly. The proposed
VASIMR engine would do that.Tue, 27 May 2003 08:37:32 GMThttp://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/2003/05/27.html#item571
Astronauts' Dirty Laundry
http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/news/2003/news-laundry.asp
Compared to earlier spacecraft, the International Space
Station has many luxuries, but laundry facilities are not one of them.
Instead, astronauts have other options.Tue, 20 May 2003 08:56:02 GMThttp://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/2003/05/20.html#item570
Including in XHTML
The following tag should be placed into the head of an XHTML document to provide a link to an RSS Feed.
The name Atom applies to a pair of related standards. The Atom Syndication Format is an XML language used for web feeds, while the Atom Publishing Protocol is a simple []-based protocol for creating and updating web resources....
DataPortability is an effort by a group of volunteers and Internet application vendors to promote the capability to control, share, and move data from one system to another....
In web development, a mashup is a Web application that combines data from one or more sources into a single integrated tool. The term Mashup implies easy, fast integration, frequently done by access to open APIs and data sources to produce results that were not the original reason for producing the raw source data....
Google Mashup Editor is an online Mashup creation service created by Google.Currently it is a limited test service and access is restricted to a small number of developers....
Microsoft Popfly is a website that allows users to create web pages, program snippets, and Mashup s using the Microsoft Silverlight rich internet applications runtime and the set of online tools provided....
Yahoo! Pipes is a web application from Yahoo! that provides a graphical user interface for building data mashups that aggregate web feeds, web page, and other services, creating Web-based apps from various sources, and publishing those apps....
Pageflakes is an Ajax -based start page similar to Netvibes, My Yahoo!, iGoogle, and Microsoft Live. The site is organized into tabs, each tab containing user-selected modules called Flakes....
Netvibes is a multi-lingual Ajax -based personalized start page much like Pageflakes, My Yahoo!, iGoogle, and Microsoft Live. It is organized into tabs, with each tab containing user-defined modules....
Ubiquity is a collection of easy and quick natural-language-derived commands that act as mashup of web services, thus allowing users to get information and relate the same to current and other webpages....
FeedSync, previously Simple Sharing Extensions, are extensions to RSS and Atom feed formats designed to enable the aggregation of information by using a variety of data sources.... )
