XML, RSS, Reader...What The?!

What is XML?

XML is a markup language for documents containing structured information such as words, pictures etc. A markup language is a mechanism to identify structures in a document. The XML specification defines a standard way to add markup to documents.

In order to appreciate XML, it is important to understand why it was created. XML was created so that richly structured documents could be used over the web. The only viable alternatives, HTML and SGML, are not practical for this purpose.

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What is RSS?

RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated digital content, such as blogs, news feeds or podcasts.

Users of RSS content use software programs called "feed readers" or "feed aggregators". The user subscribes to a feed by entering a link of the feed into the reader program. The reader can then check the user's subscribed feeds to see if any of those feeds have new content since the last time it checked, and if so, retrieve that content and present it to the user.

The initials "RSS" are variously used to refer to the following standards:
Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0)
Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91, RSS 1.0)
RDF Site Summary (RSS 0.9 and 1.0)
RSS formats are specified in XML (a generic specification for data formats). RSS delivers its information as an XML file called an "RSS feed," "webfeed," "RSS stream," or "RSS channel".

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RSS Reader:

Johannes asked us to create a RSS Reader with either Blogline or through our google account. As just before I had to make the decision of which to choose everyone started playing around with their iGoogle accounts and Hannah some how accidentally created her RSS Reader through that which seemed easy enough and she showed me how too so I went along with it and thus my decision was made as to use google or blogline.

I am interested to see how this RSS reader will help me or keep me intriguied by finding new and interesting items for me to view. I'm hoping it will be a great web tool.

Until next time kids...Peace Out and in the words of Maffew: JJ lol!