RSS - Wikipedia RSS For other uses, see RSS ( disambiguation ). For RSS feeds from Wikipedia, see Wikipedia : Syndication. RSS -- Rich Site Summary Filename extension. rss,. xml Internet media type application / rss + xml ( registration not finished ) Type of format Web syndication Extended from XML RSS ( Rich Site Summary ; originally RDF Site Summary ; often called Really Simple Syndication ) is a type of web feed which allows users to access updates to online content in a standardized, computer - readable format. These feeds can, for example, allow a user to keep track of many different websites in a single news aggregator. The news aggregator will automatically check the RSS feed for new content, allowing the content to be automatically passed from website to website or from website to user. This passing of content is called web syndication. Websites usually use RSS feeds to publish frequently updated information, such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, video. An RSS document ( called `` feed '', `` web feed '', or `` channel '' ) includes full or summarized text, and metadata, like publishing date and author 's name. A standard XML file format ensures compatibility with many different machines / programs. RSS feeds also benefit users who want to receive timely updates from favourite websites or to aggregate data from many sites. Subscribing to a website RSS removes the need for the user to manually check the website for new content. Instead, their browser constantly monitors the site and informs the user of any updates. The browser can also be commanded to automatically download the new data for the user. RSS feed data is presented to users using software called a news aggregator. This aggregator can be built into a website, installed on a desktop computer, or installed on a mobile device. Users subscribe to feeds either by entering a feed 's URI into the reader or by clicking on the browser 's feed icon. The RSS reader checks the user 's feeds regularly for new information and can automatically download it, if that function is enabled. The reader also provides a user interface. Contents 1 History 2 Example 3 Variants 4 Modules 5 Interoperability 6 BitTorrent and RSS 7 RSS to email 8 RSS compared with Atom 9 Current usage 10 See also 11 References 12 External links History This section needs to be updated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. ( October 2013 ) Main article : History of web syndication technology The RSS formats were preceded by several attempts at web syndication that did not achieve widespread popularity. The basic idea of restructuring information about websites goes back to as early as 1995, when Ramanathan V. Guha and others in Apple Computer 's Advanced Technology Group developed the Meta Content Framework. RDF Site Summary, the first version of RSS, was created by Dan Libby and Ramanathan V. Guha at Netscape. It was released in March 1999 for use on the My.Netscape.Com portal. This version became known as RSS 0.9. In July 1999, Dan Libby of Netscape produced a new version, RSS 0.91, which simplified the format by removing RDF elements and incorporating elements from Dave Winer 's news syndication format. Libby also renamed the format from RDF to RSS Rich Site Summary and outlined further development of the format in a `` futures document ''. This would be Netscape 's last participation in RSS development for eight years. As RSS was being embraced by web publishers who wanted their feeds to be used on My.Netscape.Com and other early RSS portals, Netscape dropped RSS support from My.Netscape.Com in April 2001 during new owner AOL 's restructuring of the company, also removing documentation and tools that supported the format. Two parties emerged to fill the void, with neither Netscape 's help nor approval : The RSS - DEV Working Group and Dave Winer, whose UserLand Software had published some of the first publishing tools outside Netscape that could read and write RSS. Winer published a modified version of the RSS 0.91 specification on the UserLand website, covering how it was being used in his company 's products, and claimed copyright to the document. A few months later, UserLand filed a U.S. trademark registration for RSS, but failed to respond to a USPTO trademark examiner 's request and the request was rejected in December 2001. The RSS - DEV Working Group, a project whose members included Guha and representatives of O'Reilly Media and Moreover, produced RSS 1.0 in December 2000. This new version, which reclaimed the name RDF Site Summary from RSS 0.9, reintroduced support for RDF and added XML namespaces support, adopting elements from standard metadata vocabularies such as Dublin Core. In December 2000, Winer released RSS 0.92 a minor set of changes aside from the introduction of the enclosure element, which permitted audio files to be carried in RSS feeds and helped spark podcasting. He also released drafts of RSS 0.93 and RSS 0.94 that were subsequently withdrawn. In September 2002, Winer released a major new version of the format, RSS 2.0, that redubbed its initials Really Simple Syndication. RSS 2.0 removed the type attribute added in the RSS 0.94 draft and added support for namespaces. To preserve backward compatibility with RSS 0.92, namespace support applies only to other content included within an RSS 2.0 feed, not the RSS 2.0 elements themselves. ( Although other standards such as Atom attempt to correct this limitation, RSS feeds are not aggregated with other content often enough to shift the popularity from RSS to other formats having full namespace support. ) Because neither Winer nor the RSS - DEV Working Group had Netscape 's involvement, they could not make an official claim on the RSS name or format. This has fueled ongoing controversy in the syndication development community as to which entity was the proper publisher of RSS. One product of that contentious debate was the creation of an alternative syndication format, Atom, that began in June 2003. The Atom syndication format, whose creation was in part motivated by a desire to get a clean start free of the issues surrounding RSS, has been adopted as IETF Proposed Standard RFC 4287. In July 2003, Winer and UserLand Software assigned the copyright of the RSS 2.0 specification to Harvard 's Berkman Center for Internet & Society, where he had just begun a term as a visiting fellow. At the same time, Winer launched the RSS Advisory Board with Brent Simmons and Jon Udell, a group whose purpose was to maintain and publish the specification and answer questions about the format. In September 2004, Stephen Horlander created the now ubiquitous RSS icon ( ) for use in the Mozilla Firefox browser. In December 2005, the Microsoft Internet Explorer team and Microsoft Outlook team announced on their blogs that they were adopting Firefox 's RSS icon. In February 2006, Opera Software followed suit. This effectively made the orange square with white radio waves the industry standard for RSS and Atom feeds, replacing the large variety of icons and text that had been used previously to identify syndication data. In January 2006, Rogers Cadenhead relaunched the RSS Advisory Board without Dave Winer 's participation, with a stated desire to continue the development of the RSS format and resolve ambiguities. In June 2007, the board revised their version of the specification to confirm that namespaces may extend core elements with namespace attributes, as Microsoft has done in Internet Explorer 7. According to their view, a difference of interpretation left publishers unsure of whether this was permitted or forbidden. Example RSS is XML - formatted plain text. The RSS format itself is relatively easy to read both by automated processes and by humans alike. An example feed could have contents such as the following : < ? xml version = `` 1.0 '' encoding = `` UTF - 8 '' ? > < rss version = `` 2.0 '' > < channel > < title > RSS Title < / title > < description > This is an example of an RSS feed < / description > < link > http://www.example.com/main.html</link > < lastBuildDate > Mon, 06 Sep 2010 00 : 01 : 00 + 0000 < / lastBuildDate > < pubDate > Sun, 06 Sep 2009 16 : 20 : 00 + 0000 < / pubDate > < ttl > 1800 < / ttl > < item > < title > Example entry < / title > < description > Here is some text containing an interesting description. < / description > < link > http://www.example.com/blog/post/1</link > < guid isPermaLink = `` false '' > 7bd204c6 - 1655 - 4c27 - aeee - 53f933c5395f < / guid > < pubDate > Sun, 06 Sep 2009 16 : 20 : 00 + 0000 < / pubDate > < / item > < / channel > < / rss > User interface of a feed reader When retrieved, reading software could use the XML structure to present a neat display to the end users. Variants There are several different versions of RSS, falling into two major branches ( RDF and 2. * ). The RDF ( or RSS 1. * ) branch includes the following versions : RSS 0.90 was the original Netscape RSS version. This RSS was called RDF Site Summary, but was based on an early working draft of the RDF standard, and was not compatible with the final RDF Recommendation. RSS 1.0 is an open format by the RSS - DEV Working Group, again standing for RDF Site Summary. RSS 1.0 is an RDF format like RSS 0.90, but not fully compatible with it, since 1.0 is based on the final RDF 1.0 Recommendation. RSS 1.1 is also an open format and is intended to update and replace RSS 1.0. The specification is an independent draft not supported or endorsed in any way by the RSS - Dev Working Group or any other organization. The RSS 2. * branch ( initially UserLand, now Harvard ) includes the following versions : RSS 0.91 is the simplified RSS version released by Netscape, and also the version number of the simplified version originally championed by Dave Winer from Userland Software. The Netscape version was now called Rich Site Summary ; this was no longer an RDF format, but was relatively easy to use. RSS 0.92 through 0.94 are expansions of the RSS 0.91 format, which are mostly compatible with each other and with Winer 's version of RSS 0.91, but are not compatible with RSS 0.90. RSS 2.0. 1 has the internal version number 2.0. RSS 2.0. 1 was proclaimed to be `` frozen '', but still updated shortly after release without changing the version number. RSS now stood for Really Simple Syndication. The major change in this version is an explicit extension mechanism using XML namespaces. Later versions in each branch are backward - compatible with earlier versions ( aside from non-conformant RDF syntax in 0.90 ), and both versions include properly documented extension mechanisms using XML Namespaces, either directly ( in the 2. * branch ) or through RDF ( in the 1. * branch ). Most syndication software supports both branches. `` The Myth of RSS Compatibility '', an article written in 2004 by RSS critic and Atom advocate Mark Pilgrim, discusses RSS version compatibility issues in more detail. The extension mechanisms make it possible for each branch to copy innovations in the other. For example, the RSS 2. * branch was the first to support enclosures, making it the current leading choice for podcasting, and as of 2005 is the format supported for that use by iTunes and other podcasting software ; however, an enclosure extension is now available for the RSS 1. * branch, mod_enclosure. Likewise, the RSS 2. * core specification does not support providing full - text in addition to a synopsis, but the RSS 1. * markup can be ( and often is ) used as an extension. There are also several common outside extension packages available, e.g. one from Microsoft for use in Internet Explorer 7. The most serious compatibility problem is with HTML markup. Userland 's RSS reader -- generally considered as the reference implementation -- did not originally filter out HTML markup from feeds. As a result, publishers began placing HTML markup into the titles and descriptions of items in their RSS feeds. This behavior has become expected of readers, to the point of becoming a de facto standard, though there is still some inconsistency in how software handles this markup, particularly in titles. The RSS 2.0 specification was later updated to include examples of entity - encoded HTML ; however, all prior plain text usages remain valid. As of January 2007, tracking data from www.syndic8.com indicates that the three main versions of RSS in current use are 0.91, 1.0, and 2.0, constituting 13 %, 17 %, and 67 % of worldwide RSS usage, respectively. These figures, however, do not include usage of the rival web feed format Atom. As of August 2008, the syndic8.com website is indexing 546,069 total feeds, of which 86,496 ( 16 % ) were some dialect of Atom and 438,102 were some dialect of RSS. Modules The primary objective of all RSS modules is to extend the basic XML schema established for more robust syndication of content. This inherently allows for more diverse, yet standardized, transactions without modifying the core RSS specification. To accomplish this extension, a tightly controlled vocabulary ( in the RSS world, `` module '' ; in the XML world, `` schema '' ) is declared through an XML namespace to give names to concepts and relationships between those concepts. Some RSS 2.0 modules with established namespaces are : Media RSS ( MRSS ) 2.0 Module OpenSearch RSS 2.0 Module Interoperability Although the number of items in an RSS channel is theoretically unlimited, some news aggregators do not support RSS files larger than 150KB. For example, applications that rely on the Common Feed List of Windows might handle such files as if they were corrupt, and not open them. Interoperability can be maximized by keeping the file size under this limit. BitTorrent and RSS Some BitTorrent clients support RSS. RSS feeds which provide links to. torrent files allow users to subscribe and automatically download content as soon as it is published. RSS to email See also : PubSubHubbub Some services deliver RSS to email inbox, sending updates from user 's personal selection and schedules. Conversely, some services deliver email to RSS readers. Examples of those services include Blogtrottr, IFTTT and Zapier. RSS compared with Atom Both RSS and Atom are widely supported and are compatible with all major consumer feed readers. RSS gained wider use because of early feed reader support. Technically, Atom has several advantages : less restrictive licensing, IANA - registered MIME type, XML namespace, URI support, Relax NG support. The following table shows RSS elements alongside Atom elements where they are equivalent. Note : the asterisk character ( * ) indicates that an element must be provided ( Atom elements `` author '' and `` link '' are only required under certain conditions ). RSS 2.0 Atom 1.0 author author * category category channel feed copyright rights - subtitle description * summary and / or content generator generator guid id * image logo item entry lastBuildDate ( in channel ) updated * link * link * managingEditor author or contributor pubDate published ( subelement of entry ) title * title * ttl - Current usage Several major sites such as Facebook and Twitter previously offered RSS feeds but have reduced or removed support. Additionally, widely used readers such as Shiira, FeedDemon, and Google Reader have been discontinued having cited declining popularity in RSS. RSS support was removed in OS X Mountain Lion 's versions of Mail and Safari, although the features were partially restored in Safari 8. As of August 2015, Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer include RSS support by default, while Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge do not. Additionally, reader services such as Feedly provide synchronization between desktop RSS readers and mobile devices. See also Aaron Swartz Comparison of feed aggregators DataPortability FeedSync previously Simple Sharing Extensions Mashup ( web application hybrid ) PubSubHubbub References Jump up ^ `` The application / rss + xml Media Type ''. Network Working Group. May 22, 2006. Retrieved 2007 - 08 - 16. ^ Jump up to : Libby, Dan ( 1999 - 07 - 10 ). `` RSS 0.91 Spec, revision 3 ''. Netscape ttem. Archived from the original on 2000 - 12 - 04. Retrieved 2007 - 02 - 14. Jump up ^ `` Web feeds RSS The Guardian guardian.co.uk '', The Guardian, London, 2008, webpage : GuardianUK - webfeeds. Jump up ^ Lash, Alex ( 1997 - 10 - 03 ). `` W3C takes first step toward RDF spec ''. Archived from the original on 2011 - 08 - 09. Retrieved 2007 - 02 - 16. Jump up ^ Hines, Matt ( 1999 - 03 - 15 ). `` Netscape Broadens Portal Content Strategy ''. Newsbytes. Jump up ^ `` My Netscape Network : Quick Start ''. Netscape Communications. Archived from the original on 2000 - 12 - 08. Retrieved 2006 - 10 - 31. Jump up ^ RSS Advisory Board ( June 7, 2007 ). `` RSS History ''. Retrieved 2007 - 09 - 04. Jump up ^ `` MNN Future Directions ''. Netscape Communications. Archived from the original on 2000 - 12 - 04. Retrieved 2006 - 10 - 31. Jump up ^ Andrew King ( 2003 - 04 - 13 ). `` The Evolution of RSS ''. Retrieved 2007 - 01 - 17. Jump up ^ Winer, Dave ( 2000 - 06 - 04 ). `` RSS 0.91 : Copyright and Disclaimer ''. UserLand Software. Archived from the original on 2006 - 11 - 10. Retrieved 2006 - 10 - 31. Jump up ^ U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. `` ' RSS ' Trademark Latest Status Info ''. Jump up ^ RSS - DEV Working Group ( 2000 - 12 - 09 ). `` RDF Site Summary ( RSS ) 1.0 ''. Retrieved 2006 - 10 - 31. Jump up ^ Winer, Dave ( 2000 - 12 - 25 ). `` RSS 0.92 Specification ''. UserLand Software. Archived from the original on 2011 - 01 - 31. Retrieved 2006 - 10 - 31. Jump up ^ Winer, Dave ( 2001 - 04 - 20 ). `` RSS 0.93 Specification ''. UserLand Software. Archived from the original on 2006 - 11 - 02. Retrieved 2006 - 10 - 31. Jump up ^ Harvard Law ( 2007 - 04 - 14 ). `` Top - level namespaces ''. Retrieved 2009 - 08 - 03. Jump up ^ Festa, Paul ( 2003 - 08 - 04 ). `` Dispute exposes bitter power struggle behind Web logs ''. news.cnet.com. Retrieved 2008 - 08 - 06. The conflict centers on something called Really Simple Syndication ( RSS ), a technology widely used to syndicate blogs and other Web content. The dispute pits Harvard Law School fellow Dave Winer, the blogging pioneer who is the key gatekeeper of RSS, against advocates of a different format. Jump up ^ `` Advisory Board Notes ''. RSS Advisory Board. 2003 - 07 - 18. Retrieved 2007 - 09 - 04. Jump up ^ `` RSS 2.0 News ''. Dave Winer. Retrieved 2007 - 09 - 04. Jump up ^ `` 2004 - 09 - 26 Branch builds ''. Retrieved 6 October 2014. Jump up ^ Icons : It 's still orange, Microsoft RSS Blog, December 14, 2005 Jump up ^ RSS icon goodness, blog post by Michael A. Affronti of Microsoft ( Outlook Program Manager ), December 15, 2005 Jump up ^ `` Making love to the new feed icon ''. Opera Desktop Team. 2006 - 02 - 16. Retrieved 2010 - 07 - 04. Jump up ^ `` Namespaces in XML 1.0 '' ( 2nd ed. ). W3C. August 16, 2006. Jump up ^ Holzner, Steven. `` Peachpit article ''. Peachpit article. Retrieved 2010 - 12 - 11. Jump up ^ `` Syndic8 stats table ''. Syndic8.com. Archived from the original on 2002 - 08 - 03. Retrieved 2011 - 08 - 12. Jump up ^ `` Why Blogtrottr ? ''. Retrieved 26 January 2017. Jump up ^ `` Free realtime RSS and Atom feed to email service. Get your favourite blogs, feeds, and news delivered to your inbox ''. Retrieved 26 January 2017. Jump up ^ `` RSS Feed Reader, your tool for saving time and money at RSS.com ''. Retrieved 26 January 2017. Jump up ^ Leslie Sikos ( 2011 ). Web standards -- Mastering HTML5, CSS3, and XML. Apress. ISBN 978 - 1 - 4302 - 4041 - 9. Jump up ^ Hölzle, Urs. `` A second spring of cleaning ''. googleblog.blogspot.com. Retrieved March 14, 2013. Jump up ^ Frakes, Dan ( February 19, 2012 ). `` Mountain Lion : Hands on with Mail ''. Macworld. Mac Publishing. Retrieved February 23, 2012. Jump up ^ `` Subscribe to RSS Feeds in Safari for OS X Yosemite ''. OSX Daily. Retrieved January 24, 2015. External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to RSS. RSS 0.90 Specification RSS 0.91 Specification RSS 1.0 Specifications RSS 2.0 Specification History of the RSS Fork ( Mark Pilgrim ) Building an RSS feed Tutorial with example Web syndication History Blogging Podcasting Video blogging Web syndication technology Types Art Bloggernacle Classical music Corporate Dream diary Edublog Electronic journal Fake Family Fashion Food Health Law Lifelog Litblog MP3 News Photoblog Police Political Prayer Project Reverse Travel Warblog Technology General BitTorrent Feed URI scheme Features Linkback Permalink Ping Pingback Reblogging Refback Rollback Trackback Mechanism Conversation threading Geotagging RSS enclosure Synchronization Memetics Atom feed Data feed Photofeed Product feed RDF feed Web feed RSS GeoRSS MRSS RSS TV Social Livemark Mashup pooling Referencing RSS editor RSS tracking Streaming media Standard OML OPML RSS Advisory Board -- Usenet :. net World Wide Web + ( - let ) XBEL XOXO Form Audio podcast Enhanced podcast Mobilecast Narrowcasting Peercasting Screencast Slidecasting Videocast Webcomic Webtoon Web series Anonymous blogging Collaborative blog Columnist Instant messaging Liveblogging Microblog Mobile blogging Roblog Spam blog Video blogging Motovlogging Media Alternative media Carnivals Fiction Journalism Citizen Database Online diary Search engines Sideblog Software Web directory Micromedia Aggregation News Poll Review Search Video Atom AtomPub Broadcatching Hashtag NewsML G2 Social communication Social software Web Slice Related Blogosphere Escribitionist Glossary of blogging Pay per click Posting style Slashdot effect Spam in blogs Uses of podcasting News aggregators Client software Standalone Akregator BlogBridge FeedDemon Feedreader Flipboard Genieo Google Currents Google News Liferea NetNewsWire NewsAccess Newsbeuter NewsFire QuiteRSS RSS Bandit RSSOwl Seesmic WebFetch Web browsers AOL Explorer Avant Browser Basilisk Camino iCab Flock Internet Explorer K - Meleon Kazehakase Maxthon Firefox GNOME Web Netscape Browser Netscape Navigator 9 OmniWeb Opera Pale Moon Safari SeaMonkey Shiira Sleipnir Tencent Traveler Vivaldi Waterfox Email clients Apple Mail Claws Mail Gnus IBM Notes Microsoft Outlook Mozilla Thunderbird Netscape Messenger 9 Opera Mail Pegasus Mail The Bat ! Windows Live Mail Zimbra Web browser plugins Cooliris Sage Web apps or mobile apps Bloglines CommaFeed Cheetah News Daylife Digg Reader Drupal Feedbin Feedly FriendFeed Google News Google Reader iGoogle dotCMS Imooty.eu Magnolia My Yahoo ! News360 NewsBlur Newsknowledge Netvibes Pageflakes Planet Pulse Rojo.com Prismatic Spokeo The Old Reader Tiny Tiny RSS TweetDeck WebGUI Windows Live Personalized Experience winnowTag Media aggregators Podcatcher Adobe Media Player Akregator Amarok Flock iTunes Juice MediaMonkey Miro Rhythmbox Songbird Winamp Zune RSS + BitTorrent BitLord BitTorrent 6 Deluge Miro Opera Mail qBittorrent TorrentFlux Tribler μTorrent Vuze Related articles Comparison of feed aggregators History of Media aggregation RSS enclosure Italics indicate discontinued software. Data exchange formats Human readable formats Atom XML YAML JSON RDF Rebol RSS OWL Binary formats AMF ASN. 1 SMI Avro BSON CBOR FlatBuffers MessagePack Protocol Buffers Thrift Smile XDR GND : 4734489 - 1 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=RSS&oldid=815481176 '' Categories : RSS Computer file formats Computer - related introductions in 1999 Open formats Web syndication formats XML - based standards Hidden categories : Wikipedia indefinitely semi-protected pages Pages using deprecated image syntax Wikipedia articles in need of updating from October 2013 All Wikipedia articles in need of updating Articles needing more detailed references Articles containing potentially dated statements from 2005 All articles containing potentially dated statements All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from January 2011 Articles containing potentially dated statements from January 2007 Articles containing potentially dated statements from August 2008 Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Talk Variants View source Search Contents About Wikipedia Asturianu Azərbaycanca বাংলা Bân - lâm - gú Беларуская Беларуская ( тарашкевіца ) ‎ Български Català Čeština Dansk Deutsch Eesti Ελληνικά Español Esperanto Euskara فارسی Français Galego 한국어 Հայերեն हिन्दी Hrvatski Bahasa Indonesia Íslenska Italiano עברית ქართული Қазақша Kurdî Кыргызча Latviešu Lietuvių Magyar Македонски Malagasy മലയാളം مازِرونی Bahasa Melayu Монгол Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk Norsk nynorsk Oʻzbekcha / ўзбекча Polski Português Română Русский Scots Shqip Simple English Slovenčina Slovenščina Soomaaliga Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska தமிழ் Татарча / tatarça ไทย Türkçe Українська اردو Tiếng Việt ייִדיש 粵語 中文 61 more Edit links This page was last edited on 15 December 2017, at 02 : 34. 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Question: when dealing with internet applications typically rss is an abbreviation for
Answer: Rich Site Summary; originally RDF Site Summary; often called Really Simple Syndication