RSS, originally RDF Site Summary, and often dubbed as Really Simple Syndication and Rich Site Summary, is a family of web feed formats used to publish regularly changing contents such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video in a standardized format. An RSS document which is called a "feed", "web feed", or "channel" includes full or summarized text with metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Many news-related sites, weblogs and other online publishers syndicate their content as an RSS Feed to whoever wants it.
RSS readers are either computer software or website interfaces that aggregates information from multiple sources, hence the name aggregators. RSS solves a problem for people who regularly use the web. It allows people to easily stay informed by retrieving the latest content from the sites they are interested in. Time is saved by eliminating the need to visit each site individually.
Based on type, there are several types of aggregators: search aggregators, which fetch information from search engines, news aggregators, that scan news sites, review aggregators, that retrieve information from review sites, and even poll aggregators, which keep us up to date with polling data resulting from upcoming elections
Aggregators collect and organize information from multiple sources, hence they are convenient to stay both organized and informed about updates, just by clicking on an RSS or XML button or link, although many news readers accept copy and paste operations to add URLs, besides an integrated search function to scan for news from inside it. Many sites display a small icon with the acronyms RSS, XML, or RDF to let you know a feed is available.
RSS aggregator are available in two main formats; downloadable software that runs in either Windows, Mac, or Linux based computers as a stand-alone application or desktop tool, and web-based aggregators, which are free or paid online services. Selecting an RSS aggregator is a personal matter because each of us have different tastes and needs.
Software is however easier to customize and usually comes with more features to customize the information retrieve, unlike most of their online counterparts. But not all aggregators are free software either; some are trial or shareware versions, or they can only be obtained after paying a price. This way, price tag is not always a determining factor to select between desktop and online readers.
Desktop and online news readers are alike offering blog headlines, automatic subscription, and search feed capabilities. Some may include a built-in RSS directory, keyword filtering, feeds storage and custom layout design and feeds display.
It is recommended try several aggregators to find the right one that meet your specific needs. Some people may simply want to retrieve news, while others enjoy collecting information and displaying it in a digest format.