| RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is
a lightweight XML format designed for sharing headlines and other
Web content. You can think of it as a distributable "What's
New" for a website. RSS is the optimal way to track all the
sites you read (that have RSS feeds), quickly seeing what new
items have been posted since your last visit, and getting an overview
look at headlines and excerpts before jumping over to the detailed
pages or documents.
RSS has been around since 1999, but only in the last few
months has it really been starting to pick up steam. Most of the
news and community sites you might read (news.com, bbc, msnbc,
slashdot, wired, etc.) already have RSS feeds. And now, SoftPLC
brings RSS technology to you as well!
The next generation of browsers, including Internet Explorer 7 (due in late 2006), will include an RSS Reader. |
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1. RSS is an unspammable medium.
Users do not have to share their e-mail address with anybody
2. As of yet, you can’t spread a virus (or worm) through
an RSS channel.
3. You, the user, are in full control of your subscription (entirely).
How many times have you tried to get removed from a mailing list
that you never signed up for?
4. Instant organization. Instead of setting up dozens of complex
rules to define which e-mails go to which folder, better-crafted
news aggregators have been designed to keep the “information
overload” at a minimum.
5. RSS was crafted with repurposing in mind. Why should that matter?
Services are already indexing content that’s being pushed
through RSS. There is no similar (just as comprehensive) search
engine for published e-mail newsletters. Ever try to link to an
e-mail newsletter?
6. The idea of RSS, much like e-mail, is not going to disappear,
and right now… e-mail [publishing, marketing, broadcasting]
is looking pathetically anemic. |
To use RSS, an aggregator is required. It could
be an application, plugin, script, or any other medium that downloads
an RSS feed, parses it, and displays the contents in a
useful manner. Typically, you enter the URL address of the feed
into the application, plugin, etc only once and it downloads the
contents periodically. For an aggregator, we recommend FeedReader
which can be obtained here
(download the newest version). For the Linux
OS, please see Straw.
FeedReader can be setup to start when Windows boots, it can reside
in the system tray and automatically download the RSS feed for
updates. Futhermore, it is lightweight and simple; we highly recommend
it.
Our RSS feed is located here:
http://softplc.com/blog/blogs/xmlsrv/rss2.php?blog=2
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