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Sharing Your Site with RSS
by Jason Cook 14 May 2003


Page 1

Have you ever noticed those inviting orange buttons on some Web pages, or spotted the odd link pitching an "RSS feed"? If you've ever clicked one out of curiosity, and then scratched your head at the unformatted gobbledygook in your web browser, you've seen an RSS file.

What is it really for, anyway? Two things: RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is an easy way for sites to share headlines and stories so that other sites can integrate them into their pages. Additionally, some savvy surfers use special RSS aggregators — kind of like mini-browsers — to speedily flip through the latest news and links from dozens of sites.

In other words, Web builders use RSS to dish out and bring in fresh news and content on their websites, just like the big portals. And Web surfers can use RSS applications to collect custom-tailored selections of their favorite websites to be read at their leisure.

RSS gained traction among small developers years ago, because it's easy to code and simple to share. Today, RSS is gaining momentum with big commercial sites because the technology draws in a smart and growing audience.

So, do you need to publish RSS on your site? Who's really using and reading RSS? And should you download an RSS aggregator?

This brief how-to will answer those questions one at a time, and then provide a walkthrough of a no-frills RSS feed — one you can build for your site in just a few minutes. We'll conclude with some tips on publicizing your RSS feed and automating the feed-building process.

So, intrepid RSS-ers, let's get hacking.

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