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
U.S. seizes Fannie, Freddie, aims to calm markets
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government on Sunday seized control of mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, launching what could be its biggest bailout ever in a bid to support the U.S. housing market and ward off more global financial market turbulence.
Hurricane Ike pounds Cuba on way to Gulf
HAVANA (Reuters) - Hurricane Ike pounded northeastern Cuba with 120 mile per hour (195 kph) winds, torrential rains and massive waves that rolled through coastal towns on Sunday on a path toward the Gulf of Mexico oil fields and possibly New Orleans.
McCain says he will include Democrats in Cabinet
ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (Reuters) - Republican nominee John McCain said in an interview aired on Sunday he would bring Democrats into his Cabinet and administration as part of his attempt to change the political atmosphere in Washington.
Petraeus to hand over U.S. Iraq command Sept 16
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. General David Petraeus, credited with helping staunch violence in Iraq, will hand over command of U.S. forces there to Lieutenant-General Raymond Odierno on September 16, a military spokesman said on Sunday.
U.S. forces and Afghan police kill over 20 Taliban
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - U.S.-led soldiers, backed by air support, and Afghan police killed more than 20 Taliban fighters in two separate clashes, officials said on Sunday.
Iran to hold presidential election in June 2009
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran will hold its 2009 presidential election on June 12, when conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is widely expected to stand for a second four-year term despite criticism over his economic policies.
Workers clear path to access Cairo rock fall site
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian workers cut through a railway embankment on Sunday to bring heavy earth-moving equipment to the site of a rock fall which killed at least 34 people in a Cairo shantytown.
Congress seen passing India nuke deal eventually
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The odds of the U.S. Congress passing a U.S.-India civil nuclear deal this year are long, U.S. congressional aides and analysts said on Sunday, but the deal is all but certain to win approval eventually.
Lebanese hold reconciliation talks in volatile city
TRIPOLI, Lebanon (Reuters) - Lebanese Sunni Muslim leader Saad al-Hariri held talks with an Alawite community leader in a volatile northern city overnight, paving the way for agreement to end four months of sectarian tensions, politicians said on Sunday.
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.