What is RSS?
Have you ever visited your favorite blog (like Silly Old Bear, for instance!), and seen a button or link that said something about “subscribing” to that blog? You may have even seen words like “RSS” or “feed” or something like that. If you don’t have a clue what all that stuff means, you have come to the right place!
Way back before the Internet was invented (by Al Gore, of course … Thanks, Al!), people used to read things that were printed on paper. I know, it’s a weird concept, but just accept it and let’s move on.
Back then, there were things called “magazines” that had stories and pictures in them.
For example, National Geographic was a magazine (actually, it’s still out there somewhere) that had great articles and fabulous pictures about people, places, and cultures from all over the world. (They also sometimes had goofy stuff about Evolution, but the rest of the stuff made up for that.) If you wanted to read all those stories and see all those pictures (and get the amazing free maps that were sometimes included), you would have to SUBSCRIBE to the magazine. That just meant that you would send National Geographic some money, and then they would send you their really cool magazine every month. Pretty simple concept.
It’s basically the same concept with RSS. You find a blog that is really cool (like Silly Old Bear, for instance!), and that you want to keep up with. So you go check it every day to see if any new stuff has been posted. That’s all well and good if you’re just following one blog, but if you find a bunch of really cool blogs that you want to keep up with, you might have to quit your job just to have enough time to keep checking all of them for updates. Nobody wants you to have to quit your job, so someone invented RSS so that you can keep your job and still keep up with your favorite blogs. (I don’t know, Al Gore may have invented RSS, too! Man, that guy is smart!)
Basically, you just subscribe to the blog (except that you don’t have to send money like you do with National Geographic), and then every time something new is posted on that blog, it tells you, “Hey, there’s something new here!” That way, all the new stuff comes to you, instead of you having to go and find it. Pretty cool, huh?
OK, so if you want more details about how it all works, watch the short video below. I understood it, so you probably will too.
