我想問甚麼是RSS?

RSS是一种用于网上新闻频道、网志（weblogs）和其他Web内容的数据交换规范，起源于网景通讯公司（Netscape）的推送技术（push technology），将订户订阅的内容传送给他们的通讯协同格式（Protocol）。RSS可以是以下三个解释的其中一个：

Really Simple Syndication（RSS 2.0）
RDF （Resource Description Framework） Site Summary（RSS 0.91, RSS 1.0）
Rich Site Summary （RSS 0.9 and 1.0）
但其实这三个解释都是指同一种企业联合组织（Syndication）的技术。

目前RSS规范的主要版本有0.91、1.0和2.0。

0.91版和1.0版完全不同，风格不同，制定标准的人也不同。0.91版和2.0版一脉相承。1.0版更靠拢XML标准。现时世界多数知名新闻社网站都提供RSS订阅支持。

为什么使用RSS？
RSS让网站能够制造内容摘要，并让用户以不同的方式浏览这些摘要。

如果没有RSS，用户可能需要每天去登入某个网站（如雅虎）去浏览已更新的新闻，这可能是一件非常浪费时间的事情。目前已经有很多网站向用户提供了免费的RSS馈送（RSS feed）。那么，用户就不必每天登入到该网站检查更新的新闻，他们只需要一款RSS阅读器（有客户端软件或者在线工具），将他感兴趣的网站提供的新闻RSS馈送添加到这个阅读器，在本地电脑上运行阅读器或者登陆到网络（目前还有基于手机的移动版本）就可以查看到新闻的更新内容。

好像沒有壞處。

Introduction to RSS

Want more traffic? An easy way to distribute your news? Then you need an RSS news feed. To start all you need is content you want broadcast, and one RSS text file.

What is RSS?

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a lightweight XML format designed for sharing headlines and other Web content. Think of it as a distributable "What's New" for your site. Originated by UserLand in 1997 and subsequently used by Netscape to fill channels for Netcenter, RSS has evolved into a popular means of sharing content between sites (including the BBC, CNET, CNN, Disney, Forbes, Motley Fool, Wired, Red Herring, Salon, Slashdot, ZDNet, and more). RSS solves myriad problems webmasters commonly face, such as increasing traffic, and gathering and distributing news. RSS can also be the basis for additional content distribution services.

RSS Syntax

RSS defines an XML grammar (a set of HTML-like tags) for sharing news. Each RSS text file contains both static information about your site, plus dynamic information about your new stories, all surrounded by matching start and end tags.
Each story is defined by an tag, which contains a headline TITLE, URL, and DESCRIPTION. Here's an example:
...

RSS Resources
http://www.webreference.com/authoring/languages/xml/rss/
Defined in XML, the Rich Site Summary (RSS) format has
quietly become a dominant format for distributing headlines on the Web.
Our list of links gives you the tools, tips and tutorials you need to get
started using RSS. 0323

...
Each RSS channel can contain up to 15 items and is easily parsed using Perl or other open source software. If you want more details on creating RSS files see Jonathan Eisenzopf's excellent article in the February issue of Web Techniques. But you don't have to worry about the details, we've made it easy to create your own RSS channel with free open source scripts, all Web based. More on these later.

Once you've created and validated your RSS text file, register it at the various aggregators, and watch the hits roll in. Any site can now grab and display your feed regularly, driving traffic your way. Update your RSS file, and all the external sites that subscribe to your feed will be automatically updated. What can be easier? But wait, there's more.

The Future of RSS

Thanks to the efforts of the likes of Jonathan Eisenzopf, Dave Winer and Netscape, future versions of RSS will incorporate popular additional fields like news category, time stamps, and more. With thousands of sites now RSS-enabled and more on the way, RSS has become perhaps the most visible XML success story to date. RSS democratizes news distribution by making everyone a potential news provider. It leverages the Web's most valuable asset, content, and makes displaying high-quality relevant news on your site easy. Soon we'll see RSS portals with user-rated channels, cool RSS site of the day, build your own topic-specific portal, and highly relevant search engines. A collective weblog would be another intriguing possibility. May the best content win.

RSS的英文全稱是Really Simple Syndication，是一種透過XML特性所制定的格式，將網頁內容抽取出來，讀者訂閱RSS Feed，即可直接取得有興趣的資訊，更賦予讀者隨選訂閱的強大功能；目前隨著使用者增多，RSS躍然成為改變網路出版的新興技術。

RSS為XML語言的應用，它廣泛被使用於將網站最新頭條訊息或內容有效率的整理出來，並提供給需求者參考，這項功能如同網站上『最新消息』的功能是一樣的。RSS由UserLand公司於1997年所發展，目前已成為許多網站如BBC,CNET,CNN,Disney,Forbes,Motley Fool,Wired, Red Herring,Salon,Slashdot,ZDNet等的訊息傳達工具。RSS的出現解決了網站管理者所必須面臨的許多問題，使得在網路上蒐集與傳遞訊息更加容易，同時也增進網路傳輸與連線品質，減少不必要的人工作業。

另外，在資訊爆炸的時代裡，讀者們對於資訊的焦慮恐慌卻祇有加劇、而無減輕；如何有效率地獲得真正想要的資訊，顯然成為重要的課題。RSS 閱讀器提供了一個可能的解決方案，讓讀者得以自行篩選資訊，祇看想看的內容，不收不想看的東西，藉此而對資訊有更大的掌控權。

Please find details from the link below :
http://rss.chinatimes.com/syn/rss_how.htm