For people that are daily surfers of the internet you may have come across an RSS feed before which would look like this icon
You can see the RSS icon throughout my website, in my top header, footer, navigation bar, home page and at the end of this article. This icon is an RSS feed icon it highlights to visitors that the website they are currently surfing has an RSS feed allowing visitors to subscribe to the website.
RSS the technical side
RSS is an abbreviation for (Really Simple Syndication) this is a family of web feeds used to publish new content such as blog articles and news headlines. An RSS feed generally contains a snippet of the latest article/entry that has been uploaded on to a website/blog.
By using XML to create the RSS feed you are able to view the feed in various different programs given the flexibility that XML code offers.
What are the benefits of subscribing to a website?
Through subscribing to a website via an RSS feed it allows visitors to receive updates regarding the website, these usually come daily or every couple of days. If the visitor finds the website interesting then they would subscribe to the website to ensure that they do not miss another article. You would receive this information through RSS aggregators which automatically organise the RSS feeds of your subscribed websites for you. A list of RSS Aggregators can be found here
How will I know if a website has an RSS feed?
The most common way that you will be able to tell whether a website uses an RSS feed is through the icon presented to you at the top of the article. This standard RSS feed icon is used throughout the internet, and is most commonly seen in this colour however it is known to have changed colour on various websites.
Most common places top find the icon
Search Bar
Home Page
Navigation Bar
Footer
End of Articles
If you liked this article why not subscribe to my website via this RSS feed.
