Rich Site Summary
lastmod 2025-10-10created 2023-05-253 edits
RSS (Rich Site Summary) is a content representation format used mainly by news and blog sites. Website administrators present website content in RSS format. People receiving this information can use it in other formats. RSS readers come in web-based and installable types. Web-based readers have the advantage of being usable from anywhere with a simple account registration.
Before RSS appeared, you had to visit each site directly to get the information you wanted, but since automatic collection became possible with RSS-related programs (or services), users can pick out just the latest information and view it in one place without visiting each site.
RSS is also used for media distribution such as podcasting. If media files such as MP3 or MOV are attached inside the 〈enclosure〉 tag of RSS 2.0 and distributed, the files can be downloaded and played with a podcasting client.
RSS 2.0 has been officially declared complete, and Harvard University holds the copyright.
Softwares
- Vore - new open-source RSS feed reader
See also
- News aggregator/Feed aggregagor/Feed reader/News reader/RSS reader/RSS feed reader/Aggregagor
- Atom (web standard)