View source for RSS

{{short description|Family of web feed formats}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2022}}
{{About||the Indian organisation|Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh|other uses|}}
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{{for|RSS feeds from Wikipedia|Wikipedia:Syndication|selfref=y}}
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{{Infobox file format
| name          = RSS
| icon          = [[File:Feed-icon.svg|128px|Feed [[Computer icon]].]]
| logo          =
| screenshot    =
| caption       = The [[feed icon]] used in several browsers
| extension     = <kbd>.rss, .xml</kbd>
| mime          = <code>application/rss+xml</code>&nbsp;(registration not finished)<ref>{{cite web |url=https://tools.ietf.org/id/draft-nottingham-rss-media-type-00 |title=The application/rss+xml Media Type |publisher=Network Working Group |date=May 22, 2006 |access-date=August 16, 2007 |archive-date=June 14, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220614140253/https://tools.ietf.org/id/draft-nottingham-rss-media-type-00.txt |url-status=live }}</ref>
| _nomimecode   = yes
| type code     =
| uniform type  =
| owner         = [[RSS Advisory Board]]
| genre         = [[Web syndication]]
| released      = RSS 0.90 (Netscape), {{Start date and age|1999|3|15}}
| latest_release_version = RSS 2.0 (version 2.0.11)
| latest_release_date = {{Start date and age|2009|3|30}}
| container for = Updates of a website and its related metadata ([[web feed]])
| contained by  =
| extended from = [[XML]]
| extended to   =
| standards     =
| open          = Yes
| url           = {{URL|rssboard.org/rss-specification}}
}}
'''RSS''' ('''[[Resource Description Framework|RDF]] Site Summary''' or '''Really Simple Syndication''')<ref name="Powers 2003"/> is a [[web feed]]<ref name="Libby, Dan-1999"/> that allows users and applications to access updates to websites in a [[standardized]], computer-readable format. Subscribing to RSS feeds can allow a user to keep track of many different websites in a single [[news aggregator]], which constantly monitors sites for new content, removing the need for the user to manually check them. News aggregators (or "RSS readers") can be built into a [[web application|browser]], installed on a [[application software|desktop computer]], or installed on a [[Mobile app|mobile device]].<ref name="www.britannica.com-2024">{{Cite web |date=2024-09-25 |title=RSS {{!}} Definition, Meaning, & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/technology/RSS |access-date=2024-10-10 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

Websites usually use RSS feeds to publish frequently updated information, such as [[blog]] entries, news headlines, episodes of audio and video series, or for distributing [[podcast]]s. An RSS document (called "feed", "web feed",<ref name="Web feeds | RSS | The Guardian | guardian">"Web feeds | RSS | The Guardian | guardian.co.uk",
  ''The Guardian'', London, 2008, webpage:
  [https://www.theguardian.com/help/feeds GuardianUK-webfeeds]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171215111443/https://www.theguardian.com/help/feeds |date=December 15, 2017 }}.</ref> or "channel") includes full or summarized text and [[metadata]] like publishing date and author's name. RSS formats are specified using a generic [[XML]] file.<ref name="www.britannica.com-2024" />

Although RSS formats have evolved from as early as March 1999,<ref name="Netscape Communications"/> it was between 2005 and 2006 when RSS gained widespread use, and the ("[[File:Feed-icon.svg|16px]]") icon was decided upon by several major web browsers.<ref name="Microsoft RSS Blog-2005">{{cite web |url=http://blogs.msdn.com/rssteam/archive/2005/12/14/503778.aspx |title=Icons: It's still orange |publisher=Microsoft RSS Blog |date=December 14, 2005 |accessdate=November 9, 2008 |archive-date=December 16, 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051216113745/http://blogs.msdn.com/rssteam/archive/2005/12/14/503778.aspx |url-status=live }}</ref> RSS feed data is presented to users using software called a news aggregator and the passing of content is called [[web syndication]]. Users subscribe to feeds either by entering a feed's [[URI]] into the reader or by clicking on the browser's [[feed icon]]. The RSS reader checks the user's feeds regularly for new information and can automatically download it, if that function is enabled.<!-- Keep this intro simple, don't overload with extra information. -->

== History ==
{{update section|date=October 2013}}
{{Main article|History of web syndication technology}}
The RSS formats were preceded by several attempts at [[web syndication]] that did not achieve widespread popularity. The basic idea of restructuring information about websites goes back to as early as 1995, when [[Ramanathan V. Guha]] and others in [[Apple Inc.|Apple]]'s [[Apple Advanced Technology Group|Advanced Technology Group]] developed the [[Meta Content Framework]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.cnet.com/2100-1001-203893.html |title=W3C takes first step toward RDF spec |author=Lash, Alex |date=October 3, 1997 |access-date=February 16, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110809151456/http://news.cnet.com/2100-1001-203893.html |archive-date=August 9, 2011}}</ref>

[[Resource Description Framework|RDF]] Site Summary, the first version of RSS, was created by [[Dan Libby]], Ramanathan V. Guha, and [[Eckart Walther]] at [[Netscape]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://twobithistory.org/2018/12/18/rss.html |title=The Rise and Demise of RSS |author=Target, Sinclair |date=December 18, 2018}}</ref> It was released in March 1999 for use on the My.Netscape.Com portal.<ref>{{Cite news| last = Hines| first = Matt| title = Netscape Broadens Portal Content Strategy| work = Newsbytes| date = March 15, 1999}}</ref> This version became known as RSS 0.9.<ref name="Netscape Communications">{{cite web |url=http://my.netscape.com/publish/help/quickstart.html |title=My Netscape Network: Quick Start |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20001208063100/http://my.netscape.com/publish/help/quickstart.html |archive-date=December 8, 2000 |publisher=[[Netscape Communications]] |access-date=October 31, 2006 }}</ref> In July 1999, Dan Libby of Netscape produced a new version, RSS 0.91,<ref name="Libby, Dan-1999">{{cite web
 | url= http://my.netscape.com/publish/formats/rss-spec-0.91.html
 | title=RSS 0.91 Spec, revision 3 | author=Libby, Dan
 | date=July 10, 1999 |publisher=[[Netscape|Netscape ttem]]
 | access-date=February 14, 2007
| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20001204093600/http://my.netscape.com/publish/formats/rss-spec-0.91.html
 | archive-date= December 4, 2000 }}</ref> which simplified the format by removing RDF elements and incorporating elements from [[Dave Winer]]'s news syndication format.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.rssboard.org/rss-history | title=RSS History | author=RSS Advisory Board | date=June 7, 2007 | access-date=September 4, 2007 | archive-date=September 15, 2007 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070915195153/http://www.rssboard.org/rss-history | url-status=live }}</ref> Libby also renamed the format from RDF to RSS or '''Rich Site Summary''' and outlined further development of the format in a "futures document".<ref>{{cite web
 | url=http://my.netscape.com/publish/help/futures.html
 | title=MNN Future Directions |archive-date=December 4, 2000
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20001204123600/http://my.netscape.com/publish/help/futures.html
 | publisher=[[Netscape Communications]]
 | access-date=October 31, 2006 }}</ref>

This would be Netscape's last participation in RSS development for eight years. As RSS was being embraced by web publishers who wanted their feeds to be used on My.Netscape.Com and other early RSS portals, Netscape dropped RSS support from My.Netscape.Com in April 2001 during new owner [[AOL]]'s restructuring of the company, also removing documentation and tools that supported the format.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.webreference.com/authoring/languages/xml/rss/1/ |title=The Evolution of RSS |author=Andrew King |date=April 13, 2003 |access-date=January 17, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070119031128/http://www.webreference.com/authoring/languages/xml/rss/1/ |archive-date=January 19, 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Two parties emerged to fill the void, with neither Netscape's help nor approval: The [[RSS-DEV Working Group]] and Dave Winer, whose [[UserLand Software]] had published some of the first publishing tools outside Netscape that could read and write RSS.

Winer published a modified version of the RSS 0.91 specification on the UserLand website, covering how it was being used in his company's products, and claimed copyright to the document.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://backend.userland.com/rss091#copyrightAndDisclaimer |title=RSS 0.91: Copyright and Disclaimer |author=Winer, Dave |date=June 4, 2000 |publisher=UserLand Software |access-date=October 31, 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061110001520/http://backend.userland.com/rss091#copyrightAndDisclaimer |archive-date=November 10, 2006 }}</ref> A few months later, UserLand filed a U.S. trademark registration for RSS, but failed to respond to a [[USPTO]] trademark examiner's request and the request was rejected in December 2001.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=78025336 |title='RSS' Trademark Latest Status Info |author=U.S. Patent & Trademark Office |access-date=September 4, 2007 |archive-date=August 16, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070816233807/http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=78025336 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The RSS-DEV Working Group, a project whose members included [[Aaron Swartz]],<ref>{{Cite web|date=January 14, 2013|title=RSS Creator Aaron Swartz Dead at 26|url=https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2013/01/rss-creator-aaron-swartz-dead-at-26|access-date=June 29, 2021|website=Harvard Magazine|language=en|archive-date=June 29, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210629135531/https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2013/01/rss-creator-aaron-swartz-dead-at-26|url-status=live}}</ref> Guha and representatives of [[O'Reilly Media]] and [[Moreover Technologies|Moreover]], produced RSS 1.0 in December 2000.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://web.resource.org/rss/1.0/spec |title=RDF Site Summary (RSS) 1.0 |author=RSS-DEV Working Group |date=December 9, 2000 |access-date=October 31, 2006 |archive-date=January 12, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130112212715/http://web.resource.org/rss/1.0/spec |url-status=live }}</ref> This new version, which reclaimed the name RDF Site Summary from RSS 0.9, reintroduced support for RDF and added [[XML namespace]]s support, adopting elements from standard metadata vocabularies such as [[Dublin Core]].

In December 2000, Winer released RSS 0.92<ref>{{cite web |url=http://backend.userland.com/rss092 |title=RSS 0.92 Specification |author=Winer, Dave |date=December 25, 2000 |publisher=UserLand Software |access-date=October 31, 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110131184230/http://backend.userland.com/rss092 |archive-date=January 31, 2011 }}</ref>
a minor set of changes aside from the introduction of the enclosure element, which permitted audio files to be carried in RSS feeds and helped spark [[podcast]]ing. He also released drafts of RSS 0.93 and RSS 0.94 that were subsequently withdrawn.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://backend.userland.com/rss093 |title=RSS 0.93 Specification |author=Winer, Dave |date=April 20, 2001 |publisher=UserLand Software |access-date=October 31, 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061102171227/http://backend.userland.com/rss093 |archive-date=November 2, 2006 }}</ref>

In September 2002, Winer released a major new version of the format, RSS 2.0, that redubbed its initials Really Simple Syndication. RSS 2.0 removed the ''type'' attribute added in the RSS 0.94 draft and added support for namespaces. To preserve backward compatibility with RSS 0.92, namespace support applies only to other content included within an RSS 2.0 feed, not the RSS 2.0 elements themselves.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/rss/toplevelNamespace.html |title=Top-level namespaces |author=Harvard Law |date=April 14, 2007 |access-date=August 3, 2009 |archive-date=June 5, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605164517/http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/rss/toplevelNamespace.html |url-status=live }}</ref> (Although other standards such as [[Atom (standard)|Atom]] attempt to correct this limitation, RSS feeds are not aggregated with other content often enough to shift the popularity from RSS to other formats having full namespace support.)

Because neither Winer nor the RSS-DEV Working Group had Netscape's involvement, they could not make an official claim on the RSS name or format. This has fueled ongoing controversy{{Specify|date=September 2016}} in the syndication development community as to which entity was the proper publisher of RSS.

One product of that contentious debate was the creation of an alternative syndication format, Atom, that began in June 2003.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://news.cnet.com/Battle-of-the-blog/2009-1032_3-5059006.html
|title=Dispute exposes bitter power struggle behind Web logs
|publisher=news.cnet.com
|date=August 4, 2003
|access-date=August 6, 2008
|last=Festa
|first=Paul
|quote=The conflict centers on something called Really Simple Syndication (RSS), a technology widely used to syndicate blogs and other Web content. The dispute pits Harvard Law School fellow Dave Winer, the blogging pioneer who is the key gatekeeper of RSS, against advocates of a different format.
|archive-date=August 6, 2009
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090806234534/http://news.cnet.com/Battle-of-the-blog/2009-1032_3-5059006.html
|url-status=live
}}</ref> The Atom syndication format, whose creation was in part motivated by a desire to get a clean start free of the issues surrounding RSS, has been adopted as [[IETF]] Proposed Standard {{IETF RFC|4287}}.

In July 2003, Winer and UserLand Software assigned the copyright of the RSS 2.0 specification to Harvard's [[Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society]], where he had just begun a term as a visiting fellow.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rssboard.org/advisory-board-notes |title=Advisory Board Notes |date=July 18, 2003 |publisher=[[RSS Advisory Board]] |access-date=September 4, 2007 |archive-date=September 27, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927051743/http://www.rssboard.org/advisory-board-notes |url-status=live }}</ref> At the same time, Winer launched the [[RSS Advisory Board]] with [[Brent Simmons]] and [[Jon Udell]], a group whose purpose was to maintain and publish the specification and answer questions about the format.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.scripting.com/2003/07/18.html#rss20News |title=RSS 2.0 News |publisher=[[Dave Winer]] |date=July 18, 2003 |website=Scripting News |access-date=September 4, 2007 |archive-date=August 22, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070822014007/http://www.scripting.com/2003/07/18.html#rss20News |url-status=live }}</ref>

In September 2004, Stephen Horlander created the now ubiquitous [[Web feed#Feed icon|RSS icon]] ([[File:Feed-icon.svg|16px|text-bottom]]) for use in the [[Mozilla]] [[Firefox]] [[Web browser|browser]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.squarefree.com/burningedge/2004/09/26/2004-09-26-branch-builds/ |date=September 26, 2004 |website=The Burning Edge |title=2004-09-26 Branch builds|access-date=October 6, 2014|archive-date=October 9, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141009071447/http://www.squarefree.com/burningedge/2004/09/26/2004-09-26-branch-builds/|url-status=live}}</ref>

In December 2005, the Microsoft Internet Explorer team<ref name="Microsoft RSS Blog-2005"/> and
[[Microsoft Outlook]] team<ref>"[https://web.archive.org/web/20051217102644/http://blogs.msdn.com/michael_affronti/archive/2005/12/15/504316.aspx RSS icon goodness]", blog post by Michael A. Affronti of Microsoft (Outlook Program Manager), December 15, 2005</ref> announced on their blogs that they were adopting Firefox's RSS icon. In February 2006, [[Opera Software]] followed suit.<ref>{{cite web|title=Making love to the new feed icon|url=http://my.opera.com/desktopteam/blog/show.dml/146296|publisher=Opera Desktop Team|access-date=July 4, 2010|date=February 16, 2006|archive-date=April 17, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100417170259/http://my.opera.com/desktopteam/blog/show.dml/146296|url-status=dead |author=trond }}</ref> This effectively made the orange square with white radio waves the industry standard for RSS and Atom feeds, replacing the large variety of icons and text that had been used previously to identify syndication data.

In January 2006, [[Rogers Cadenhead]] relaunched the RSS Advisory Board without Dave Winer's participation, with a stated desire to continue the development of the RSS format and resolve ambiguities. In June 2007, the board revised their version of the specification to confirm that namespaces may extend core elements with namespace attributes, as Microsoft has done in Internet Explorer 7. According to their view, a difference of interpretation left publishers unsure of whether this was permitted or forbidden.

== Example ==
RSS is [[XML]]-formatted plain text. The RSS format itself is relatively easy to read both by automated processes and by humans alike. An example feed could have contents such as the following:

<syntaxhighlight lang="xml">
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<rss version="2.0">
<channel>
 <title>RSS Title</title>
 <description>This is an example of an RSS feed</description>
 <link>http://www.example.com/main.html</link>
 <copyright>2020 Example.com All rights reserved</copyright>
 <lastBuildDate>Mon, 6 Sep 2010 00:01:00 +0000</lastBuildDate>
 <pubDate>Sun, 6 Sep 2009 16:20:00 +0000</pubDate>
 <ttl>1800</ttl>

 <item>
  <title>Example entry</title>
  <description>Here is some text containing an interesting description.</description>
  <link>http://www.example.com/blog/post/1</link>
  <guid isPermaLink="false">7bd204c6-1655-4c27-aeee-53f933c5395f</guid>
  <pubDate>Sun, 6 Sep 2009 16:20:00 +0000</pubDate>
 </item>

</channel>
</rss>
</syntaxhighlight>

===Aggregators===
{{main|News aggregator}}
[[File:Tiny Tiny RSS English Interface.png|thumb|upright=1.5|User interface of an RSS feed reader on a desktop computer]]
When retrieved, RSS reading software could use the XML structure to present a neat display to the end users. There are various news aggregator software for desktop and mobile devices, but RSS can also be built-in inside [[web browser]]s or [[email client]]s like [[Mozilla Thunderbird]].

== Variants ==
There are several different versions of RSS, falling into two major branches (RDF and 2.*).

The RDF (or RSS 1.*) branch includes the following versions:
* RSS 0.90 was the original Netscape RSS version. This RSS was called ''RDF Site Summary'', but was based on an early working draft of the RDF standard, and was not compatible with the final RDF Recommendation.
* RSS 1.0 is an open format by the RSS-DEV Working Group, again standing for ''RDF Site Summary''. RSS 1.0 is an RDF format like RSS 0.90, but not fully compatible with it, since 1.0 is based on the final RDF 1.0 Recommendation.
* RSS 1.1 is also an open format and is intended to update and replace RSS 1.0. The specification is an independent draft not supported or endorsed in any way by the RSS-Dev Working Group or any other organization.

The RSS 2.* branch (initially UserLand, now Harvard) includes the following versions:
* RSS 0.91 is the simplified RSS version released by Netscape, and also the version number of the simplified version originally championed by Dave Winer from Userland Software. The Netscape version was now called ''Rich Site Summary''; this was no longer an RDF format, but was relatively easy to use.
* RSS 0.92 through 0.94 are expansions of the RSS 0.91 format, which are mostly compatible with each other and with Winer's version of RSS 0.91, but are not compatible with RSS 0.90.
* RSS 2.0.1 has the internal version number 2.0. RSS 2.0.1 was proclaimed to be "frozen", but still updated shortly after release without changing the version number.  RSS now stood for ''Really Simple Syndication''.  The major change in this version is an explicit extension mechanism using XML namespaces.<ref name="W3C-2006" >{{cite web
  |title=Namespaces in XML 1.0
  |url=http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml-names/
  |publisher=W3C
  |date=August 16, 2006
|edition=2nd
  |access-date=May 22, 2008
|archive-date=March 16, 2011
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110316043909/http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml-names/
  |url-status=live
  }}</ref>

Later versions in each branch are [[backward-compatible]] with earlier versions (aside from non-conformant RDF syntax in 0.90), and both versions include properly documented extension mechanisms using XML Namespaces, either directly (in the 2.* branch) or through RDF (in the 1.* branch).  Most syndication software supports both branches. "The Myth of RSS Compatibility", an article written in 2004 by RSS critic and [[Atom (standard)|Atom]] advocate [[Mark Pilgrim]], discusses RSS version compatibility issues in more detail.

The extension mechanisms make it possible for each branch to copy innovations in the other. For example, the RSS 2.* branch was the first to support [[RSS enclosure|enclosures]], making it the current leading choice for podcasting, and {{as of|2005|lc=on}} is the format supported for that use by [[iTunes]] and other podcasting software; however, an enclosure extension is now available for the RSS 1.* branch, mod_enclosure.  Likewise, the RSS 2.* core specification does not support providing full-text in addition to a synopsis, but the RSS 1.* markup can be (and often is) used as an extension.  There are also several common outside extension packages available, e.g. one  from [[Microsoft]] for use in [[Internet Explorer]] 7.

The most serious compatibility problem is with HTML markup. Userland's RSS reader—generally considered as the reference implementation—did not originally filter out [[HTML]] markup from feeds. As a result, publishers began placing HTML markup into the titles and descriptions of items in their RSS feeds. This behavior has become expected of readers, to the point of becoming a [[de facto]] standard.<ref>{{Cite web|title=W3C RSS 1.0 News Feed Creation How-To|url=https://www.w3.org/2001/10/glance/doc/howto.html|access-date=February 5, 2021|website=www.w3.org|archive-date=June 14, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220614140126/https://www.w3.org/2001/10/glance/doc/howto.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Though there is still some inconsistency in how software handles this markup, particularly in titles. The RSS 2.0 specification was later updated to include examples of entity-encoded HTML; however, all prior plain text usages remain valid.

{{As of|2007|1}}, tracking data from www.syndic8.com indicates that the three main versions of RSS in current use are 0.91, 1.0, and 2.0, constituting 13%, 17%, and 67% of worldwide RSS usage, respectively.<ref>{{cite web |last=Holzner |first=Steven |url=http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=674690 |title=Peachpit article |publisher=Peachpit article |access-date=December 11, 2010 |archive-date=November 9, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111109173320/http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=674690 |url-status=live }}</ref> These figures, however, do not include usage of the rival web feed format Atom. {{As of|2008|8}}, the syndic8.com website is indexing 546,069 total feeds, of which 86,496 (16%) were some dialect of Atom and 438,102 were some dialect of RSS.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.syndic8.com/stats.php?Section=feeds#tabtable |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020803040757/http://www.syndic8.com/stats.php?Section=feeds#tabtable |url-status=dead |archive-date=August 3, 2002 |title=Syndic8 stats table |publisher=Syndic8.com |access-date=August 12, 2011 }}</ref>

== Modules ==
The primary objective of all RSS modules is to extend the basic XML schema established for more robust syndication of content. This inherently allows for more diverse, yet standardized, transactions without modifying the core RSS specification.

To accomplish this extension, a tightly controlled vocabulary (in the RSS world, "module"; in the XML world, "schema") is declared through an XML namespace to give names to concepts and relationships between those concepts.

Some RSS 2.0 modules with established namespaces are:
* [[Media RSS]] (MRSS) 2.0 Module
* [http://www.opensearch.org/Specifications/OpenSearch/1.1 OpenSearch RSS 2.0 Module] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100704024114/http://www.opensearch.org/Specifications/OpenSearch/1.1 |date=July 4, 2010 }}

== Interoperability ==
Although the number of items in an RSS channel is theoretically unlimited, some [[news aggregators]] do not support RSS files larger than 150KB.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}} For example, applications that rely on the Common Feed List of [[Windows]] might handle such files as if they were corrupt, and not open them. [[Interoperability]] can be maximized by keeping the file size under this limit.

[[Podcast]]s are distributed using RSS. To listen to a podcast, a user adds the RSS feed to their podcast client, and the client can then list available episodes and download or stream them for listening or viewing. To be included in a podcast directory the feed must for each episode provide a title, description, artwork, category, language, and explicit rating. There are some services that specifically indexes and is a [[search engine]] for podcasts.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Best Podcast Search Engine|url=https://lifehacker.com/the-best-podcast-search-engine-1818560337|access-date=February 5, 2021|website=Lifehacker|date=September 20, 2017 |language=en-us|archive-date=November 29, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201129195032/https://lifehacker.com/the-best-podcast-search-engine-1818560337|url-status=live}}</ref>

Some [[BitTorrent]] clients support RSS. RSS feeds which provide links to .torrent files allow users to [[broadcatching|subscribe and automatically download]] content as soon as it is published.

===RSS to email===
{{See also|WebSub}}
Some services deliver RSS to an email inbox, sending updates from user's personal selection and schedules. Examples of such services include [[IFTTT]], [[Zapier]] and others.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogtrottr.com/|title=Free realtime RSS and Atom feed to email service. Get your favourite blogs, feeds, and news delivered to your inbox.|access-date=January 26, 2017|archive-date=January 28, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170128081150/http://blogtrottr.com/|url-status=live}}</ref> Conversely, some services deliver email to RSS readers.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://rss.com/|title=RSS Feed Reader, your tool for saving time and money at RSS.com|access-date=January 26, 2017|archive-date=January 25, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170125224151/https://www.rss.com/|url-status=live}}</ref> Further services like e.g. [[Gmane]] allow to subscribe to feeds via [[NNTP]].

It may be noted that [[email client]]s such as [[Mozilla Thunderbird|Thunderbird]] supports RSS natively.<ref>{{Cite web|title=How to use Thunderbird to get RSS feeds! Here's How it Works|date=October 17, 2018 |url=https://www.uslsoftware.com/how-to-use-thunderbird-to-get-rss-feeds/|access-date=February 5, 2021|language=en-US|archive-date=April 13, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413005112/https://www.uslsoftware.com/how-to-use-thunderbird-to-get-rss-feeds/|url-status=live}}</ref>

== RSS compared with Atom ==
Both RSS and [[Atom (web standard)|Atom]] are widely supported and are compatible with all major consumer feed readers. RSS gained wider use because of early feed reader support. Technically, Atom has several advantages: less restrictive licensing, [[IANA]]-registered [[MIME type]], XML namespace, [[URI]] support, [[RELAX NG]] support.<ref>{{cite book |author=Leslie Sikos |url=http://www.masteringhtml5css3.com |title=Web standards – Mastering HTML5, CSS3, and XML |publisher=[[Apress]] |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-4302-4041-9 |access-date=June 14, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402152305/http://www.masteringhtml5css3.com/ |archive-date=April 2, 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

The following table shows RSS elements alongside Atom elements where they are equivalent.

Note: the [[asterisk]] character (*) indicates that an element must be provided (Atom elements "author" and "link" are only required under certain conditions).

{| class="wikitable"
|-
!scope="col" |RSS 2.0
!scope="col" |Atom 1.0
|-
|<code>author</code>
|<code>author</code>*
|-
|<code>category</code>
|<code>category</code>
|-
|<code>channel</code>
|<code>feed</code>
|-
|<code>copyright</code>
|<code>rights</code>
|-
|—
|<code>subtitle</code>
|-
|<code>description</code>*
|<code>summary</code> or <code>content</code>
|-
|<code>generator</code>
|<code>generator</code>
|-
|<code>guid</code>
|<code>id</code>*
|-
|<code>image</code>
|<code>logo</code>
|-
|<code>item</code>
|<code>entry</code>
|-
|<code>lastBuildDate</code> (in <code>channel</code>)
|<code>updated</code>*
|-
|<code>link</code>*
|<code>link</code>*
|-
|<code>managingEditor</code>
|<code>author</code> or <code>contributor</code>
|-
|<code>pubDate</code>
|<code>published</code> (subelement of <code>entry</code>)
|-
|<code>title</code>*
|<code>title</code>*
|-
|<code>[[time to live|ttl]]</code>
|—
|}

== Current usage ==
Several major sites such as [[Facebook]] and [[Twitter]] previously offered RSS feeds, but have reduced or removed support. Additionally, widely used readers such as [[Shiira]], FeedDemon, and particularly [[Google Reader]], have all been discontinued as of 2013, citing declining popularity in RSS.<ref name="Hölzle">{{cite web|url=http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-second-spring-of-cleaning.html|title=A second spring of cleaning|publisher=googleblog.blogspot.com|first=Urs|last=Hölzle|date=March 13, 2013 |access-date=March 14, 2013|archive-date=March 14, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130314045128/http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-second-spring-of-cleaning.html|url-status=live}}</ref> RSS support was removed in [[OS X Mountain Lion]]'s versions of [[Apple Mail|Mail]] and [[Safari (web browser)|Safari]], although the features were partially restored in Safari 8.<ref name="Frakes-2012">{{cite web | url=http://www.macworld.com/article/165465/2012/02/mountain_lion_hands_on_with_mail.html | title=Mountain Lion: Hands on with Mail | publisher=[[Mac Publishing]] | work=[[Macworld]] | date=February 19, 2012 | access-date=February 23, 2012 | last=Frakes | first=Dan | archive-date=January 3, 2013 | archive-url=https://archive.today/20130103203018/http://www.macworld.com/article/1165465/mountain_lion_hands_on_with_mail.html | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://osxdaily.com/2014/11/03/subscribe-rss-feeds-safari-os-x/ | title=Subscribe to RSS Feeds in Safari for OS X Yosemite | date=November 3, 2014 | publisher=OSX Daily | access-date=January 24, 2015 | archive-date=January 21, 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150121185232/http://osxdaily.com/2014/11/03/subscribe-rss-feeds-safari-os-x/ | url-status=live }}</ref> Mozilla removed RSS support from [[Mozilla Firefox]] version 64.0, joining [[Google Chrome]] and [[Microsoft Edge Legacy|Microsoft Edge [Legacy]]] which do not include RSS support.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Cimpanu |first1=Catalin |title=Mozilla to Remove Support for Built-In Feed Reader From Firefox |url=https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/software/mozilla-to-remove-support-for-built-in-feed-reader-from-firefox/ |website=[[Bleeping Computer]] |date=July 26, 2018 |access-date=July 26, 2018 |language=en-us |archive-date=July 26, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180726144716/https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/software/mozilla-to-remove-support-for-built-in-feed-reader-from-firefox/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Firefox 64.0, See All New Features, Updates and Fixes |url=https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/64.0/releasenotes/ |website=Mozilla |date=December 11, 2018 |access-date=December 12, 2018 |language=en-us |archive-date=December 11, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181211143259/https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/64.0/releasenotes/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Since the late 2010s, however, there has been an uptick in RSS interest again. In 2018, ''[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]]'' published an article named "It's Time for an RSS Revival", citing that RSS gives more control over content compared to algorithms and trackers from social media sites. At that time, [[Feedly]] was the most popular RSS reader.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.wired.com/story/rss-readers-feedly-inoreader-old-reader/ |title=It's Time for an RSS Revival |magazine=Wired |last=Barrett |first=Brian |date=March 30, 2018 |access-date=July 26, 2021 |url-status=live |archive-date=August 12, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210812114050/https://www.wired.com/story/rss-readers-feedly-inoreader-old-reader/ }}</ref> [[Microsoft Edge|Microsoft Edge (New)]] on [[Windows]] and [[Google Chrome#Android|Google Chrome on Android]] added the ability to follow RSS feeds as of 2021.<ref>{{cite web |title=Microsoft Edge to revive a classic feature RSS feeds on Windows |url=https://www.windowslatest.com/2021/12/26/microsoft-edge-to-revive-rss-feeds/ |website=Windows Latest |first=Mayank |last=Parmar |date=December 26, 2021 |access-date=January 3, 2025 |archive-date=June 14, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240614054118/https://www.windowslatest.com/2021/12/26/microsoft-edge-to-revive-rss-feeds/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Campbell |first=Ian Carlos |date=October 8, 2021 |title=Google Reader is still defunct, but now you can 'follow' RSS feeds in Chrome on Android |url=https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/8/22716813/google-chrome-follow-button-rss-reader |access-date=June 19, 2022 |website=[[The Verge]] |archive-date=June 5, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220605165318/https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/8/22716813/google-chrome-follow-button-rss-reader |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=How to use Google Chrome as an RSS reader and get the latest updates on your favorite websites |url=https://chromeunboxed.com/how-to-use-google-chrome-follow-feed |website=Chrome Unboxed |first=Michael |last=Perrigo |date=July 5, 2023 |access-date=January 3, 2025 |archive-date=September 8, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240908161436/https://chromeunboxed.com/how-to-use-google-chrome-follow-feed |url-status=live }}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[JSON Feed]]
* [[Aaron Swartz]]
* [[Comparison of feed aggregators]]
* [[Data portability]]
* [[FeedSync]], previously Simple Sharing Extensions
* [[hAtom]]
* [[Mashup (web application hybrid)]]
* [[WebSub]]

==Notes==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book |last=Powers |first=Shelley |author-link=Shelley Powers |title=Practical RDF |date=2003 |publisher=[[O'Reilly Media|O'Reilly]]}}
{{refend}}

== References ==
{{reflist|2|refs=
<ref name="Powers 2003">{{harvnb|Powers|2003|p=10}}: "Another very common use of RDF/XML is in a version of RSS called RSS 1.0 or RDF/RSS. The meaning of the RSS abbreviation has changed over the years, but the basic premise behind it is to provide an XML-formatted feed consisting of an abstract of content and a link to a document containing the full content. When Netscape originally created the first implementation of an RSS specification, RSS stood for RDF Site Summary, and the plan was to use RDF/XML. When the company released, instead, a non-RDF XML version of the specification, RSS stood for Rich Site Summary. Recently, there has been increased activity with RSS, and two paths are emerging: one considers RSS to stand for Really Simple Syndication, a simple XML solution (promoted as RSS 2.0 by Dave Winer at Userland), and one returns RSS to its original roots of RDF Site Summary (RSS 1.0 by the RSS 1.0 Development group)."</ref>
}}

== External links ==
{{sisterlinks|v=RSS Feeds Howto|c=category:RSS|d=Q45432|n=no|s=no|species=no|q=no|b=XML - Managing Data Exchange/RSS|m=Syndication feeds|mw=Extension:RSS}}
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* [https://cyber.harvard.edu/rss/ RSS 2.0 Specification]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110718034619/http://diveintomark.org/archives/2002/09/06/history_of_the_rss_fork History of the RSS Fork] (Mark Pilgrim)
* [https://www.scriptol.com/rss/rss-tutorial.php Building an RSS feed] Tutorial with examples.

{{Web syndication}}
{{Aggregators}}
{{Data Exchange}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rss}}
[[Category:RSS| ]]
[[Category:Computer file formats]]
[[Category:Internet properties established in 1999]]
[[Category:Open formats]]
[[Category:Web syndication formats]]
[[Category:XML-based standards]]