RSS stands for
"Really Simple Syndication" -- it's a format for
distributing and gathering content from sources across the Web,
including newspapers, magazines, and blogs. It might help to think of
them as the free, internet version of the old-fashioned ticker-tape
news wire machines.
Web publishers use
RSS to easily create and distribute news feeds that include links,
headlines, and summaries.
Not all websites
currently provide RSS, but it is growing rapidly in popularity and
many others now also provide it. Mediaweb offers RSS feeds for all
its media releaseas as well as an RSS feed per interest category.
Typical applications
for consuming or using RSS include:
Using a program
known as a News Aggregator to collect, update and display RSS feeds
Incorporating RSS
feeds into weblogs
News Aggregators
(also called news readers) will download and display RSS feeds for
you. A number of free and commercial News Aggregators are available
for download (see below). Many aggregators are separate,
"stand-alone" programs such as those listed below; other
services will let you add RSS feeds to a Web page.
Another way many
people use RSS feeds is by incorporating content into weblogs, or
"blogs". Blogs are web pages comprised of usually short,
frequently updated items and web links. Blogging as a publishing tool
is used for many purposes: traditional journalism, personal journals,
group discussions around a topic, and many combinations in-between.
If
you run your own website, you can use RSS feeds to display the latest
headlines from other websites on your site. We encourage the use of
Mediaweb RSS feeds as part of a website, subject to our Terms and
Conditions.
However,
we do require that the proper format and attribution is used when
Mediaweb content appears. The attribution text should read "Mediaweb
Release" or "From Mediaweb" as appropriate.
