RSS in brief - for the user
RSS = Real Simple Syndication
Do you surf the internet a lot? or do you have some sites that you constantly visit looking for new articles, news, content, sports or other results? If so, then RSS will really simplify your life. Traditionally, you probably would add those web sites into your favorites (bookmark) and click on the link whenever you want to visit a web site usually to check if there is anything new posted.
Basically the purpose of an RSS feed is similar to the "Favorites" or the "Bookmark" of your browser, but with more information about new content. An RSS feed contains headlines and brief descriptions that would enable you to preview new contents of a web site. Thus, you would know before hand what to expect before clicking on the link to the site. Here on the right is an image of a typical example of an RSS in which are listed the headlines of various web sites including ours. Probably the best feature of an RSS feed is that the contents are readily updated whenever there is something new posted on the web site that is feeding the news. Note that our example is just an image, therefore not clickable.
Unlike bookmarks, RSS is not an intergral part of the widely used browsers (we hope it will be in future versions). You need an RSS Reader to access feeds. RSS readers, also known as Aggregators or News Readers, are available either as software which you have to install on your computer, or as online Readers. If you have a Yahoo! or MSN (hotmail) account, then your 'My Yahoo!' and your 'My MSN' are actually good online RSS readers. If you have been using Yahoo and hotmail services only for emails, you might as well click on 'My Yahoo!' or 'My MSN' and discover what you have been missing. There, you'll find a list of headlines chosen by the respective services. However, you can remove these headlines and add news feeds from other sources of your preference.
The bottom line :- You don't have to visit all your favorite web sites unless you wish to see some details. Say, if you are interested only in the latest results of a lottery draw, as much as we want you to, you don't really have to visit our web site if you have our feed.
There are three ways to add your favorites to the reader.
- Yahoo! and all other directories have a categorized list of web sites that deliver feeds to choose from. So, follow their instructions on how to add and edit feeds.
- If the feed you want is not in these directories, then you have to manually enter the the URL (web page address)
of the RSS feed. For instance, the URL of our RSS for the latest winning numbers of the Florida lottery is:
http://us-lotteries.com/rss/FLRss.xml
Note that not all web sites have RSS feeds. Those that have RSS feeds will display either
or 
buttons wherever the feeds are located. When you click on these buttons, the XML file of the feed will be displayed. All that
you need here is the address of the file in the 'address bar' of the browser. Copy it and deliver it to your reader. - Some web sites display 'Add To ...' buttons of some of the major online RSS Readers. Examples of these buttons are shown
below,
All you have to do is just click on the buttons. You'll automatically be guided through the process of adding the feed of the web site you are currently visiting to that RSS Reader. The actual clickable buttons for or website are located at the respective state lotteries home pages.
RSS feeds should adhere to preset standards depending on their version. Therefore, their validity has to be verified by independent RSS Validators. If you encounter one of the following buttons on a web site, it simply means that the web site's RSS feed is VALID. So is ours.
![[Valid RSS]](../Images/valid-rss.png "Validate my RSS feed")
Besides Yahoo!, MSN, and Google, there are several other RSS directories, and also RSS readers. Here are some of the most poular ones: