Rss feed
From Elearning
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Overview
RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication and it opens up the world of subscription on the Web. When a website has RSS feeds, you have the option to subscribe to one or more of those feeds. This allows you to monitor that website or certain pages on that site without having to visit it every time. When the website has one or more series of audio or video files available for subscription, those are usually called Podcast(s).
RSS feeds are part of a new model on the Web where you can customize your surfing experience.
Tools needed to subscribe to an RSS feed
There are many ways of consuming an RSS feed:
1) With a recent browser
2) With an account on an aggregator website.
3) With dedicated Podcatching software
Any one of these approaches will allow you to subscribe to a Podcast.
Recent Browser
On a Windows machine, this basically means:
- Microsoft Internet Explorer version 7.0 (IE 7) and above
- Firefox 2.0 and above
- Opera 9.0 and above
On a Mac, this means:
- Safari 2.0 and above
- Firefox 2.0 and above
- Opera 9.0 and above
These browsers will understand the RSS feed and display it in a user-friendly way.
Note: Microsoft Internet Explorer on a Mac does not support RSS feeds, nor does it support much else anyway since it has not been updated for many years and doesn't look like it is going to be updated anytime soon.
Aggregator Website or Reader
These websites consume RSS feeds. They are also known as NewsReaders or even simply "Readers". You can customize such a page by choosing which RSS feed you want to subscribe to. This includes any podcast feed. Some of those aggregator websites offer an online player for you to listen to (or maybe even view) any particular episodes of a podcast.
There are many more readers/newsreaders or aggregators available on the DMOZ Open Directory Project
Podcatching Software
This kind of software is specifically meant to "catch" podcasts. The list of podcatching software includes, but is not limited to:
Shortcut to subscribe to an RSS feed
When you already have an account with an Aggregator website, or you have the podcatching software already installed, you can use some of the shortcuts sometimes offered on websites with an RSS feed.
Sometimes, an icon will prompt you to connect directly to the most popular aggregators and podcatchers.
These are some of those icons which could be used:
- iTunes:
- iTunes:
- Google HomePage or Google Reader:
- Netvibes:
- My Yahoo:
Customized way of subscribing to an RSS feed
If you prefer using your own software or aggregator, or you just want to copy the URL for RSS feed, you can right-click on the generic icon showing an RSS feed, and copy that link. If you couldn't get iTunes to automatically subscribe to the podcast by clicking on the previous icon (Add to iTunes), this might be another option. In iTunes, click on "Advanced" and then on "Subscribe to Podcast". You will then have a small blank window prompting you for a URL. This is where you would paste that URL that you obtained by right-clicking on a generic podcast feed.
If you wonder what a "generic" RSS or podcast feed looks like, here are some possible icons:
- Generic Podcast feed:
- Generic Podcast feed:
- Generic RSS feed:
- RSS 2.0 (The RSS spec for podcasting:
- RSS (It could be any flavour of RSS):
- XML (RSS is written in XML):
Examples
For an example of a Podcast feed at the University of Sydney, look at the "Careers in Arts" Podcast.
It offers several options, including a raw RSS 2.0 feed (Podcast) and various shortcuts to Google Reader, Netvibes and iTunes.
More Information
You can get more information on podcasting and RSS feeds on the following external websites:
