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2021-10-08

RSS

Despite being old it's gold.

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. It refers to files easily read by a computer, called XML files, that automatically update information. A link to a website is created using this tech and that very link is identified by an RSS reader software which then fetches the information from that particular linked site and shows it to the user. RSS was created by Dan Libby and Ramanathan V. Guha in 1999 with a motive of making it easier to subscribe to web feeds.

Checking each site one by one will take forever. Signing up for their newsletters could ensure you keep up with the latest updates and information, but it's also easy to mistake the emails as spam or to ignore them altogether in your crowded inbox. Then again, relying solely on the site's social media updates might mean you miss something important you wanted to know about.

In simple terms, RSS helps you create your own e-magazine where you get only the information you want to get from the sites you've chosen. Not only can you subscribe to your favourite websites, but you also can subscribe to blogs and podcasts if the RSS reader supports it. RSS readers can fetch text information, audio, images and even video files, so you won't lose any information you want to get in any form. Even though it can fetch every kind of file all you get in an RSS reader is the title, a short description, some pictures or a video, and the link to the original website (Usually* because RSS cannot fetch the ads present on the site which hampers the monetization of those sites since no ads = no income.).

Workings

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Advantages

You get the latest updates. Whether it is about the weather, new music, local news, or a new posting from a rarely-updated site, learn you get as soon as it is published.
You can save a lot of time by reading a self curated feed instead of browsing all the websites one by one.
Unlike emails, you can easily subscribe and unsubscribe whenever you want.
You won't be spammed with useless information, unlike emails where you might get every kind of spam and non-informative emails after they get your email.
The feed you get is organized in a chronological order, and you can keep track if it is already read or not.
RSS doesn't have ads and trackers that you find on a website, which is good for your reading experience as well as your privacy.

Disadvantages

Articles (Info) from the sites is received in a certain amount instead of the whole article, so you are very likely to go inside the webpage instead of just reading the RSS content.
It is very difficult to accurately track the number of subscribers who read an RSS feed or the items contained in an RSS feed.
RSS readers load up different websites at once and since most RSS contents doesn't contain full articles you also go to their website, increasing the data traffic.
RSS contents will not be counted as views to the websites, so it could impact on the income of the creator.

RSS is a very old but useful tech. With it being one of the go-to methods of creating feeds, RSS has been implemented in various fields and can fetch different data from different sources. I am personally using RSS to keep track of what my friends are doing on Instagram and Twitter, as well as subscribing to websites as well as YouTube channels I like. These social media don't have RSS integrated with them, but frontends like Bibliogram(Instagram) and Nitter(Twitter) allow you to subscribe to the publicly available profiles with RSS. RSS is a must-have thing if you go to websites frequently to get information.

Links :

Alternative Frontends