 Surfing the net, you've probably noticed the button titled RSS Feed. It may be orange in colour, or it may be in other formats. News service websites like abc.net.au or cnn.com have been offering the facility for years now.It's another one of those technologies that began many years ago, around 1997, and quietly gains in popularity over time. I've been curious about the popularity and whether it is a convenience, or just another item to take up our valuable time. Once you follow the easy prompts, (and this is usually only a click or two), you become a subscriber to that particular website. It's similar to subscribing to a newsletter, but without the risk of getting pages of pictures and text in your email inbox. The chosen RSS feed functionality automatically resides in your web browser, (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox etc), and your browser checks if there are any updates to the website you've chosen. If the website has a new news item, or product update, your browser will list the new items, while recording the past items. It's convenient when you want to stay in touch with the likes of product launches, news updates or informational postings. Even blogs. Your browser will present you with a list of latest entries and postings, and it saves you having to go to the chosen website and search around for what's new. The technology is best suited to catalogues, news items and product or informational updates on websites. It's least suited to websites or webpages that rarely change, like the contact us page or about us page. (Unless these are likely to be changed regularly.) The rule of thumb could be that if a webpage changes monthly or even quarterly, then an RSS facility may be worthwhile. This may be when you have a staff contacts list on your website, or a page where new features, products or events are updated. RSS feed facility is not expensive to install, and may be a worthwhile convenience to your viewing audience. |
