What is RSS?

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a technology allowing content providers (bloggers and web publishers) to alert their consumers of new posts on their sites and to allow other sites to publish some of its content.

RSS-enabled sites provide RSS feeds that list article headlines, summaries and links back to the latest full-text articles on the web.

Consumers

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is used by websites to share and distribute their latest content. Websites create a list — a feed — of the contents on their site. The feed contains the latest article headlines, summaries and links back to full-text articles on their website.

Say you like to browse through your five favorite websites each day, to see what's new. Five sites, fifteen minutes apiece — that's over an hour, just to find out if there are any new articles.

Wouldn't you rather have the latest news delivered directly to you?

RSS automatically tells you when something new is posted online — so you spend less time searching for content and more time enjoying it.

Examples of feeds you may want to subscribe to:

• New items for sale on your favorite shopping sites
• Tour dates from your favorite band site
• Upcoming events at a local college, such as seminars or lectures
• A friend's collection of travel bookmarks, which she updates frequently
• New job listings and resume tips from a job database
• Posts on your favorite blogs

RSS readers can either be Standalone or Plugin. Standalone readers are applications that run in the background on your desktop and automatically update your subscribed feeds. Plugin readers work within one of you existing programs such as Microsoft Outlook, Firefox and Internet Explorer.

There are a variety of free RSS readers available as well as readers you can purchase that have more tools and features within the reader. Check out C|Net's news reader reviews.

Pluck's RSS readers are free of charge and allow you to subscribe to a variety of content from a growing number of sources into one place. They will collect, update, and display your RSS feeds in one central location that you can access from anywhere. They works with both Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers. Think of Pluck's RSS Reader as your one-stop-shop for a days browsing.

Consumers can then subscribe to the feed, browse the headlines and summaries and determine which article they want to read in more detail.

Most RSS readers support multiple ways to subscribe to an RSS feed:

• Click to Subscribe

  When you see a feed you're interested in, simply click on the subscribe button or link and follow the prompts offered by your RSS reader to complete the subscription.

• Drag and Drop to Subscribe

  Another simple way to subscribe is by dragging the subscribe button or link into the RSS Reader. You will be instantly subscribed to that feed.

• Manually Add Feeds

  If you know the URL of the feed you want to subscribe to, most RSS Readers will off you the option to add it manually.

Once you have subscribed to the RSS feeds you want, your RSS reader will seek out that information, and you will receive any new content from the publisher. Most feed readers present you with easy-to-browse headlines and short summaries of the latest information, including links that will take you directly to the full article. You can see what's new on dozens of sites, and read only the ones that interest you.