Content Syndication with RSS

Chapter 1. Introduction

Whatever we possess becomes of double value when we have the opportunity of sharing it with others.

—Jean Nicolas Bouilly

In this chapter, we discuss the definition of content syndication within the scope of the Internet and give a little of its history. We then move on to the business cases for syndicating your own content and a discussion of the philosophy behind content syndication. The chapter finishes with a brief discussion of the legal issues surrounding the provision and use of syndication feeds.

What Is Content Syndication?

Content syndication makes part or all of a site’s content available for use by other services. The syndicated content, or feed , can consist of both the direct content itself and metadata — information about the content.

The feed can be anything from just headlines and links to stories, to the entire content of the site, stripped of its layout and with metadata liberally applied. The technology to do this ranges from the simple beginnings of RSS 0.91, through to the RDF-based RSS 1.0, all the way to the industrial strength NewsML, ICE, and Prism. Content syndication can allow users to experience a site on multiple devices and be notified of updates over a variety of services. It can range from a simple list of links sent from site to site, to the beginnings of the Semantic Web.

Content syndication can also start as easy as you like and quickly give inspiration for new, innovative services, as its development has already shown.