What is RSS?

November 9, 2009 | Posted by Margarette

In the past, I’ve announced contests that were available to all of our web site’s subscribers. We have a number of people who subscribe via email, but readers also have the option of subscribing via RSS. In case you are wondering what RSS is, here’s a description.

What is RSS?
RSS stands for “really simple syndication”, and it is a technology that is used by web surfers who want to know when their favorite web sites are updated. In the case of Coupons and Kids, RSS technology allows you to know every time a post is updated.

People who use RSS get these updates delivered to them via News Feeds. It’s a lot like the feeds we send out on Facebook and Twitter, but from the reader’s point of view, you don’t subscribe to your friends or fan pages, you subscribe to web sites.

How to Read RSS Feeds
In order to read the news feeds of your favorite web sites, you have to select an RSS Feed Reader. This is a program that is generally free and available on the web. They are similar to free online email programs. In fact, many email programs offer RSS readers as part of their service. I use Google’s Reader, but there are several out there.

Once you’ve selected your reader, my best advice is to simply select some feeds to subscribe to and try it out. You can subscribe to the Coupons and Kids feed here, then select the RSS reader you plan to use.

Another way to subscribe is to look for an orange icon on the web site, similar to the one at the top of this post. That’s an RSS icon, and by clicking on it, you may be able to subscribe to that site’s feed. (In Safari web browsers, there may be a different icon altogether, one that’s blue).

Once you subscribe, the feeds work a lot like email. You receive new updates as web sites publish them, and anything you haven’t read yet is usually bold-faced.
Good luck!

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