How do I find out if a website has an RSS feed?

The special XML-format file that makes up an RSS feed is usually created in one of a variety of ways.

It is getting more and more common for websites to have RSS feeds. They usually indicate the existence of the feed on the home page or main news page with a link to “RSS”, or sometimes by displaying an orange button with the letters “XML” or “RSS”. Once you know the URL of an RSS feed, you can provide that address to an RSS aggregator program and have the aggregator monitor the feed for you.

How the RSS is feed file produced?

Most large news websites and most weblogs are maintained using special “content management” programs. Authors add their stories and postings to the website by interacting with those programs and then use the program’s “publish” facility to create the HTML files that make up the website. Those programs often also can update the RSS feed XML file at the same time, adding an item referring to the new story or post, and removing less recent items. Blog creation tools like Blogger, Live Journal, Movable Type, and Radio automatically create feeds.

Tying it all together

Here is a diagram showing how the websites, the RSS feed XML files, and your personal computer are connected:

The diagram shows a web browser being used to read first Web Site 1 over the Internet and then Web Site 2. It also shows the RSS feed XML files for both websites being monitored simultaneously by an RSS Feed Aggregator.
Uses:

In addition to notifying you about news headlines and changes to websites, RSS can be used for many other purposes. There does not even have to be a web page associated with the items listed — sometimes all the information you need may be in the titles and descriptions themselves.
Some commonly mentioned uses are:

• Notification of the arrival of new products in a store
• Listing and notifying you of newsletter issues, including email newsletters
• Weather and other alerts of changing conditions
• Notification of additions of new items to a database, or new members to a group

Read What is RSS Part I

Tags: RSS