RSS Awareness Day May 1, 2008: Get on the RSS train

If you’re reading this blog, then it’s likely you already are a regular rider of the RSS train. But RSS isn’t something everyone in the general public knows about, as only an estimated 5-percent of web users subscribe to websites using RSS. Hence the idea for RSS Awareness Day, which takes place on May 1, 2008 (which happens to be nine days before the first National Train Day, to continue with the train theme). In observance of this day, you can blog about RSS to help get the word out about this technology.

According to Wikipedia; RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and along with the orange RSS icon became widespread in 2005/2006. RSS is defined as “a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines, and podcasts.” Which when used with either programs such as NewsFire or NetNewsWire or web-based readers such as Google Reader or Bloglines subscribers can have all the content from their favorite blogs available in one location, making it easy to get all the news.

There is also a great video, courtesy of Common Craft that explains the essentials of RSS. Maybe RSS isn’t more popular because people don’t think it’s Really So Simple. But all they have to do is watch the video, and then they can arrive at the RSS train station. All aboard!

Read [Daily Blog Tips]