The Importance of RSS Feeds to Baltimoreans

Billions of people including Baltimoreans surf and use the Internet every day. Therefore, they can understand the time it takes to search for what they want online. Additionally, a web master also values the effort it takes to generate more activity on their website. As a result, everyone can appreciate the power as well as value of an RSS feed and all the benefits from using these formats.

What is an RSS Feed?

An RSS feed originates from the name “Really Simple Syndication” or “Rich Site Summary” that is a group of web formats as blog entries, news headlines, audio, video, and podcasting sources. The RSS document is identified as a “feed” or “web feed” or “channel” and consists of full or summarized text which gathers these formats to publish frequently updated information.

What is the RSS History?

RSS was first introduced by Internet-browser pioneer Netscape in 1999 and have been used in some shape or another ever since. Nevertheless, it has not boomed and been adopted until the last couple of years. For instance, in 2002 the New York Times started offering RSS feeds on their website and afterward the format started grabbing attention. In 2005, large corporations in the web browser market began integrating the technology directly into their products, including Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Mozilla Foundations Firefox and Apple's Safari. Today, most big website players offer at least one such RSS news feed.

What are uses for an RSS Feed?

The uses of an RSS feed is beneficial for individuals who subscribe to frequently updated websites. This way they can view many feeds from various sites in one location. The file format allows the requested information to be published just once but viewed from many different programs. Some advantages include: an RSS reader will indicate whenever a user has unread tables of contents available, a user can choose when to look at the RSS feeds plus they don't clog up email inboxes, an RSS feed has abstracts and can link directly to the articles online, and a user does not need to provide any personal information to sign-up for the news feeds.  

How do RSS Feeds Disseminate Information?

RSS feeds are important in order to disseminate information because individuals like to keep up to date on their favorite news and information from their topics of interest whether relating to home or work. Most mainstream media sources are publishing RSS feeds today and many people use them to stay on top of current news. In addition, corporate companies are using RSS feeds to disseminate information both internally and externally. They do this to provide information to staff and customers by using reports, blogs, newsletters, and so on. Using an RSS feed is cost effective because it saves valuable time and allows companies to be more competitive. Customers or readers can gain more knowledge and get more personalized experience which in return strengthens a company’s brand name

How can an RSS Feed be used as a Business Tool?

They can also be used as a tool for improving business in several ways including: transferring a company’s own content into an RSS feed, creating news headlines featuring a company’s press releases, or site updates, publicizing upcoming events, explaining thoughts or commentary, posting articles, highlighting new products or services, promoting weekly or monthly specials, sending out newsletters, sharing new links, and so forth.

Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2565593/

http://www.wix.com/flash/web-design/learning-center/planning-your-website/what-is-an-rss-feed-and-why-you-need-it.html