What the heck is RSS?
A demonstration of using RSS feeds to display info real
time. This feed is available from the news agency Reuters.
RSS feeds are usually available when you see 
or 
on
a web page, but many other link styles exist.
Odd News From Reuters
House approves oil spill reform bill
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives on Friday approved the toughest reforms ever to offshore energy drilling practices, as Democrats narrowly pushed through an election-year response to BP's massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Arizona immigration law appeal set for November
PHOENIX, Arizona (Reuters) - A U.S. court denied a request for an expedited hearing on Friday and instead set a November date for Arizona's appeal to a federal court ruling that blocked key parts of a state law cracking down on illegal immigration.
BP to try well kill Tuesday
BILOXI, Mississippi (Reuters) - BP Plc said on Friday it could seal its ruptured Gulf of Mexico oil well by next week as the House of Representatives voted to toughen regulation of offshore energy drilling.
U.S. bank failures total 108 after 5 shut on Friday
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. bank failures reached 108 so far in 2010 on Friday as regulators seized five small banks in the Pacific Northwest and the Southeast, none publicly traded.
Enbridge says no restart date for ruptured line
DETROIT/CALGARY (Reuters) - Enbridge Inc's chief executive said on Friday he was unable to say when the company would be able to restart the Michigan pipeline that ruptured earlier this week, spilling more than 800,000 gallons of oil.
U.S. worried more secret documents may be released
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. officials are worried about what other secret documents the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks may possess and have tried to contact the group without success to avoid their release, the State Department said on Friday.
Petters seeks new trial after Ponzi conviction
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lawyers for convicted U.S. Ponzi schemer Tom Petters on Friday asked an appeals court to send the case back for a new trial, saying they were not able to fully present arguments against some of his accusers.
Obama urges Iran to release three U.S. hikers
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Friday called on Iran to immediately release three Americans who were detained a year ago after straying across the border while hiking in the mountains of northern Iraq.
Imports slow Q2 growth as business spending surges
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. economic growth slowed in the second quarter as companies invested heavily in equipment from abroad and the pace of consumer spending eased, raising concerns about the recovery in the rest of 2010.
Not to be confused with ROUS.
The concept of RSS arose from this basic situation: "I have a standard set of web site I visit everyday to gather information or be entertained. But now I spend too much time making the rounds to these sites. It seems to me that if computers are so damn smart, mine could go and get the information I am looking for."
In the earlier days of the commercialization of the internet - there were services that were trying to create a way for people to get such a customized feed. But they were ignoring a recurring truth of the internet. "You cannot control the basic usage of the internet." There were many problems with the model of these services (the most prominent was known as PointCast).
Instead of creating the service that tried to act like some sort of clearinghouse for incoming and outgoing information, RSS was developed as a protocol that anyone could add to their flow of information. Either outgoing (as with an RSS feed) or incoming (as with an RSS reader). Anyone who publishes information can fairly easily setup and RSS feed. For people who consume RSS feeds it is getting easier everyday to setup your own personal accumulation of data. Besides special RSS readers, RSS is being added to email clients, web browsers, and there is a whole new service of RSS aggregators that allow you setup your own web pages built of your own set of RSS feeds. (A lot like the way Hotmail and Yahoo let you set up a free email account.)
Who owns RSS?
No one does - that is an important reason why it is successful. A bunch of geeks got together and established a standard protocol that anyone could use (from either size: sending info or gathering info) This started with a few of the techie and academic sites establishing RSS feeds and some passionate programmers creating RSS readers. And a new variation of internet media was created.
Today (mid 2005) we are just at the beginning to see the cultural and commercial potential of RSS.