The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for Business Success, Second Edition

Chapter 18. RSS—Really Simple Syndication Made Simple

What's in It for You?

For the first time in Internet history, you can syndicate or distribute your original web site content worldwide for free. That's right. No longer do you have to subscribe to a news service or be part of a large media organization to send your news or receive news from any other web site from all around the world.

RSS—or Really Simple Syndication—is a one-click solution that allows all of your content to be sent to your followers the moment you publish it. The reverse is also the case; you can have each of your preferred blogs and news stories sent to you automatically without having to take the time to search all of your favorite web sites every day for new content and updates. Simply adding a syndication button to your blog site lets your followers click your Subscribe button and instantly receive your latest breaking blog.

But what exactly does RSS have to do with building an online following for your business? Let's start with some basic information, so that you can see how this really simple concept can be easily applied to your own company.

Back to the Beginning

The early RSS formats date back to 1995, when computer scientist Ramanathan V. Guha and several of his colleagues developed the Meta Content Framework (MCF)^[28] at Apple Computer's Advanced Technology Group between 1995 and 1997. In July 1999, Guha developed the first version of RSS (0.9) for My.Netscape.com. Guha's Netscape colleague Dan Libby ...