RSS: Make it work for you today
Thursday, July 14, 2005
CCNA INFORMATION SYSTEMS COORDINATOR
The Publisher presents this third instalment of our RSS Focus on Technology. In the April and May instalments, we learned that RSS is an electronic news feed, and that this new technology is fast becoming a common way to access the news on-line. To learn more about RSS, visit: http://www.communitynews.ca/rss/
Recap: What is RSS?
Really Simple Syndication, or RSS, is a defined standard with the specific purpose of delivering updates to web-based content. Using this standard, webmasters provide headlines and fresh content in a succinct manner.Meanwhile, consumers use RSS readers and news aggregators to collect and monitor their favourite feeds in one centralized program or location. Content viewed in the RSS reader or news aggregator is also known as an RSS feed.
RSS was initially used by news services to provide up-to-date information and news summaries. The RSS format allowed the news content to be easily syndicated in a very quick manner. The RSS standard has evolved into a popular way to distribute all types of up-to-date information.
Online news reading increasing
A study conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project in February-March 2005 showed that 48 percent of adult Americans have used the Internet to get news, and 12 percent of adult Americans used the Internet to get news "yesterday."
On June 16, 2005, Nielsen/NetRatings, the Internet and digital media measurement arm of Nielsen Media Research, announced that one fifth of American online users who read newspapers now rely primarily on web editions.
These studies and others like them are showing that more people are getting online, and more online users are turning to the Internet for news, to access classified ads, and to search for a job. Many community newspapers anticipated this trend and created web sites, hoping to keep in line with evolving reading habits.
Reach more readers
With a world of news and information available at the click of a button, readers’ attention is becoming more and more splintered. To cut through the overload, readers want content to be more personalized and focused to their needs.
Many web users are now subscribing to the RSS news feeds of their favourite news sources, and only return to a site when they know there is new content that interests them. As a news provider, adding RSS to your web site is a cheap and easy way to meet the growing demands of today’s online news reader.
RSS Generator
Getting your headlines to appear in news feeds requires the creation and maintenance of an RSS file. CCNA has created an RSS code generator that will help you to create the RSS file required. To view the generator, visit: http://www.communitynews.ca/rss/generator/
Overview of the instructions:
A complete, detailed list of instructions will guide you through the process, but here are three basic steps:
1. Create the RSS file
Fill out the online form with titles, web links and a short description of each article. You must also provide some basic information about the feed itself, such as your newspaper name. Click on the "Make the Code" button.
2. Put the RSS file on your web site
Copy and paste the code you created into a text document, and save the file on your web site. The file can be called anything you like, so long as it ends with the ".xml" file extension.
3. Provide a link to your RSS file
News aggregators, and browsers such as Mozilla Firefox, need to be told the online location of your file, i.e. its web address. For users to find out the address, you need to provide a link on your web site. In order for users to quickly recognize an RSS link, most web sites use a standard, orange-coloured image that says "XML".*
Updating the file each week
Each week, or whenever you update your web site, use the same online form to create a fresh file with the latest articles. Replace the old file with the new file, and voilà, your readers will automatically be accessing the new feed.
For advanced web programmers
More advanced web programmers may want to link their current news database with a script that will generate an RSS file automatically. A quick search of the web will yield a wide selection of free, cheap and easy-to-install scripts that will connect to your existing database.
We’ve gathered a selection of links to resources for you. Visit: http://www.communitynews.ca/rss/
* Why "XML" and not "RSS":
The standard known as RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is based on the basic standard known as XML, which stands for eXtensible Markup Language (compare this name to HyperText Markup Language, or HTML). The universal symbol for all links to any XML file has become an orange icon that reads “XML.”
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