What Are RSS Feeds?

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary. This format was originally developed to syndicate the content of news-related websites. However, its use has expanded in recent years to cover a wide variety of websites with a wide variety of content. An RSS feed is the data from one of these websites that can be downloaded and read through the use of an RSS aggregator.

A Brief History of RSS

Several years ago, the original version of RSS was developed by Netscape. Its original purpose was to build a portal of headlines from mainstream news sites. Netscape abandoned development of RSS early on, but UserLand Software then picked up the technology. Around the same time, a third group known as the RSS-DEV Working ...

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