RSS : A Non-technical Approach

What is RSS?
Many times while visiting News Publishing sites,blogs,Forums you will come accross an orange clickable image with XML or RSS written on it.
Now what does it mean or what happens when we click on them ,is the question which comes in mind of those who are say limited users of computers (this might cover the audience which i mean to say :))

Following Article is for those type of users with no technical jargon.
 
Standard defination you will find is "RSS is a format for delivering regularly changing web content".
In a more simpler way we can say, they are just like our bookmarks for sites we regularly visit.The diffrence between a bookmark and RSS is that in bookmark we just mark the page so that we can visit it in future without searching for it on google or typing the whole URL again in the address bar.
RSS are in a way work same as bookmarks,only thing is it work as a bookmark for the content of a sites and not the page and also you get the list of the updated contents in your bookmarks list .

E.g:

If you visit a News Publishing site and you find some of its News Section intresting and want to visit it regularly ,in such case what you do is you bookmark the site so that you can  directly visit that page.Now the same thing is done much more easier by RSS (if its supported by the site).Instead of bookmarking the page you can add(bookmark) those section you are intrested into your RSS list on your browser

Now some more questions...

How i will know if the content is having RSS Feed support?

Whenever you will come accross an orange clickable image
with XML or RSS written on it that means that content has an RSS Feed for which you can subscribe.

What Happens when I click on it?

When you click on the XML /RSS image you will be redirected on a page where you will get to see the content list for which you are subscribing and a link saying "Subscribe to this Feed", you have to click on that actually this depends on your browser.
Although all of them do the same thing still the presentation slightly differs.

if you are using Internet Explorer :
You will get the above mentioned page

if you are using Mozilla Firefox :
it will give a dropdown saying "Subscribe to this Feed using" and Live Bookmark is default selected keep it as it is and click on "Subscribe Now"

Who Manages these RSS Feeds for us?

There are many softwares available in market known as "RSS Reader" which allow you to grab the RSS feeds from various sites and display them for you to read and use.
But in our case our own browser is our RSS Reader ,again this depends on which browser you are using.

If you are using Internet Explorer :
You view feeds on the Feeds tab in the Favorites Center.
To view your feeds, click the Favorites Center button , and then click Feeds.

if you are using Mozilla Firefox :
Under Bookmarks you will get your Feeds List.

How will I know the list in my browser is really a updated one ?

Normally there are predifned intervels during which the browser automatically updates the list for u but if you want you can manually reload it to get the updated list of contents  whwnever you want this again depends on your browser

if you are using Internet Explorer :
Go to the Favorites Center as you do to view the Feeds (mentioned above)
Move your mouse on the Feeds you will see an "Up & Down Green Arrow " image against each Feed entry which is the reload button click that and you will get the Updated List

if you are using Mozilla Firefox :
Go to the Bookmarks Menu and Right Click on the Feed Entry you want to Update and click on "Reload Live Bookmarks"


Just click on it and get your Favorite content displayed.

If you have any Query do reply to my Article and I will try to answer your Query.