RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format.[2] An RSS document (which is called a "feed", "web feed", [3] or "channel") includes full or summarized text, plus metadatasuch as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishersby letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readerswho want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or toaggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds can be readusing software called an "RSS reader", "feed reader", or "aggregator", which can be web-based, desktop-based, mobile device or any computerized Internet-connected device. A standardized XMLfile format allows the information to be published once and viewed bymany different programs. The user subscribes to a feed by entering thefeed’s URI (often referred to informally as a "URL", although technically, those two terms are not exactly synonymous)into the reader or by clicking an RSS icon in a browser that initiatesthe subscription process. The RSS reader checks the user’s subscribedfeeds regularly for new work, downloads any updates that it finds, andprovides a user interface to monitor and read the feeds.
RSS formats are specified using XML, a generic specification for the creation of data formats. Although RSS formats have evolved since March 1999, [4] the RSS icon ("") first gained widespread use between 2005 and 2006.[5]