What are Feeds?
Introduction
A Feed, also known as a Web Feed or News Feed, is a document (usually in XML format) that summarises new web site content and presents this information to the Feed's subscribers via a Feed Reader or Aggregator. (Think of the feed as an email, and the Feed Reader as the program you check your mail with!) A Feed Reader can display multiple Feeds at once, meaning that once configured, it can monitor a host of web sites simultaneously.
Why the need to Feed?
Internet Users (who are becoming increasingly dependant on the Net for their sources of information) are having to visit each of their favourite sites to check whether or not there is new content that is worth their attention.
This figure shows a Web User having to visit each of the sites that they are interested in to find out if they contain any new content.
Not only is this process time consuming and potentially frustrating for the user, but it also means that Users who do not visit often enough may miss crucial content as it falls into an archive and is no longer prominently displayed.
What if users could simply visit one site or application that monitored their favourite sites for new content? What if it summarised that new content to give the user an indication of whether or not they'd want to actually visit the site to read more?
This is precisely what Feeds do best; they deliver new content summaries to the user without the user having to actively check for new content. This makes keeping track of what's happening on their favourite websites efficient and frustration-free!
This figure shows a Web User visiting an automated summary of all of their favourite sites on the net. The summary includes a title and synopsis of new content.
Flavours of Feed
There are three primary types of Feed: RSS, ATOM, and RDF. They are all very alike and accomplish exactly the same thing: the syndication and distribution of subscribable content. They are also all coded in XML. The only real difference between them is the formatting of that code.
Eyebrows have been raised at the creation of ATOM and RDF (which have followed in RSS's footsteps), with some complaining that they only served to complicate matters. But in application, with support for all three formats being fairly good, it should mean little to end users which Feed types they subscribe or publish to. (Flaremaker fully supports all three formats.)
Next: Anatomy of a Feed