Windows Vista™ Inside Out

Finding, Reading, and Subscribing to RSS Feeds

When is a webpage not exactly a webpage? When it’s a web feed. Feeds are delivered using the HTTP protocol, but they’re put together programmatically, using Extensible Markup Language (XML) and the Really Simple Syndication (RSS) standard. A web feed is basically a well-structured list of items, each with a headline, a body, date and time stamps, and other standard details. The page is designed to be regenerated after new items are posted; the latest feed is downloaded at regular intervals and reconstituted at the receiver’s end using any of what seems like a thousand RSS reading tools. Web feeds have become extraordinarily popular, as evidenced by the little RSS icons that dot just about every webpage ...