Really Simple Syndication (RSS)
RSS is a standard file format used on the internet to deliver text-based news and blog entries, and podcast audio and video to websites and internet users.
Developed in XML (eXtensible Mark-up Language) 
, a scripting language used to standardise the description of data, RSS provides a common way for people to distribute information on the web via ‘feeds’.
RSS is commonly used by most major news organisations, such as Fairfax, PBL, the ABC, Reuters and the BBC to share their news information with other sites. It is used by many large companies to provide media releases to journalists and by many bloggers to notify their readers when a new blog entry has been made.
How to view RSS feeds on your computer
RSS feeds enable the latest news and headlines from various sites on the internet to be displayed very easily and manageably.
To view RSS feeds, you will first need a ‘feed reader’ or ‘aggregator program’ that understands XML and can convert an RSS feed back into information for reading and viewing.
A number of feed readers are listed by Google .
Next you will need to locate and get the web addresses for the feeds you wish to download automatically for viewing.
RSS feeds can be found on most major news sites with a little searching, for instance the Sydney Morning Herald offers seven different feeds through an RSS Channels page .
There are also central directories of RSS feeds, including:
Once you have installed your feed reader and entered in the web addresses of the feeds, simply click ‘download’ or ‘update’ to start the reader downloading and displaying the different RSS feeds. You can even set this so that the latest news, sport, weather and other information is downloaded to your computer automatically.