RSS (Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is a format for delivering frequently updated web content. An RSS page is a specially coded XML file (called a "feed") that can be registered with an Aggregator. Aggregators are programs and services that monitor RSS feeds and provide a centralized, user-friendly subscription facility.

Content distributors and publishers syndicate a web feed allowing users to subscribe to it. Users can subscribe to their choice of feed by entering the link of the feed into the feed reader program/service or by clicking an RSS icon in a browser that initiates the subscription process. The RSS reader checks regularly the feeds for new content, downloads the updates and provides an interface to read and organize the feeds and to be automatically notified when new content is added.





RSS can be read with RSS Readers that are available for different platforms. You can read your feeds in different forms:

1. You can use your own web browser.


2. A web-based feed reader service such as My Yahoo, Bloglines or Google Reader.


3. A desktop-based feed reader program such as Amphetadesk (Windows, Linux, Mac), FeedReader (Windows), and NewsGator (Windows - integrates with Outlook).

Medical professionals must be up-to-date in their fields of interest. That is why many physicians repeatedly check websites (news sites, community sites, product information pages, medical blogs and journals) to see whether there are newly published articles on the site. It takes time and effort.



While RSS solves the problem of those who have to use the web regularly. It helps you how to stay informed easily by getting the latest content from the sites you are interested in. With RSS, you don't need to visit each sites individually. You ensure your privacy as you don't have to join e-mail newsletters.

So to sum it up, RSS is useful:

Sites usually display a small icon with the acronyms RSS, XML, or RDF to let you know a feed is available.





Feed Icons feature even more logos and images that can help you to recognize it anywhere on the web.



Two examples about how to read RSS feeds:

Aide RSS is a service that filters the RSS noise by scoring each article by the number of comments it received, number of times it has been tagged in del.icio.us, or the number of inbound links from blog search engines, etc.



It will definitely improve your productivity and makes it even easier to track the content you like. For example, you can get only the quality articles or the best ones of a blog or a site via RSS, it depends on your decision.



A long description about how to read RSS:

In the old form of world wide web, we had newsletters, now we have RSS. We all use it for different reasons, but it can change the way we follow anything online.