RSS hidden internet magic?!

What is RSS?

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is the O.G. subscription method of the internet. It is a method to allow users to subscribe to internet based services and recieve updates in a friendly fortmat.

How does it work?

RSS subscriptions are deployed by an author of content on the internet. RSS subscriptions are typically XML files which get updated with content. From the subscribers perspective, the RSS feed is simply a web address (URL) to the RSS XML file. The subscriber will copy the URL of the RSS feed, and add it to an RSS client (a program which accepts and reads RSS files). I provide an example in my website footer - QuiteRSS. RSS clients will display any content which comes via an RSS feed. This means you can subscribe to whatever services from across the internet and access them all in one place! These are ad-free content feeds, without needing to manually check in on various websites for updates!

What's the point?

The point is, with the introduction of social media, RSS feeds were originally how these sites operated. Social media sites were in essence, cleverly presented RSS generators and clients. However, these sites fundamentally lock you into their ecosystems. With time, social media sites have moved away from RSS feed-style back-ends, and made their own proprietary ecosystems. This restricts you - the user- from ever getting access to their content from outside of their ecosystems (services).

The other problem is, many newer websites, to gain subscription acccess, request you subscribe to an email list. Again, this is an exploitation of the user. By providing your name and email address, this is valuable data which can be used for targeted marketing and can be on-sold.

An example of the power of RSS

Let's say I wanted to follow all of my friends on social media. Well, previously I could grab their RSS link and add it to my client.
Then, I wanted to get all of my local news, so I would go to my local news website, and grab their RSS links.
Then, let's say I wanted to follow the latest information in my field of work, so I go to a governing body and grab their RSS links.
Whatever you can think of, will normally have an RSS service. So you can quickly build a one-stop shop of all of your interests using RSS.

What if a service doesn't have RSS?

I recommend you look into setting up RSS Bridge. RSS Bridge is a service which can be run on your computer. You provide RSS Bridge with a website and it will create an RSS file or url for you, which can then be passed onto a client. Internet magic! You can now subscribe to ANY webservice using RSS!

So what client?

There are hundreds of RSS readers available! You likely already have one installed on your computer. Some big email clients provide them (e.g. the desktop versions of Microsoft Office and Mozilla Thunderbird). However, I opt to use QuiteRSS.
But you can use whatever client you like. There are even clients for mobile iOS and Android! To make my RSS the same on every device, I just share my RSS feed via cloud storage (QuiteRSS allows you to export the library of feeds that you are subscribed to as an OPML syndication feed). Then I can import that file into whatever RSS client I like to use on whatever device I have handy.

Get started with RSS!

• Download QuiteRSS
• Subscribe to your first feed
• Add some more RSS feeds.
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• PROFIT