More on Feeds
What are blogs?
Blog is a shortened version of "weblog" (web log), which is often a personal website in the form of an online column or diary. Blogs may be updated daily, weekly, or whenever...
Blogs are usually arranged to have the newest entries at the top. Many are trite, but some are entertaining, informative, or both. Most blogs have a web feed with the same content, or a snippets with a links to the blog posts (items).
Blogs often display comments (responses) as well: "One of the beautiful things about blogging is that I can present ideas, concepts, situations or hypotheticals about anything and then open it up to comments. Often I have found the comments offered by readers to provide more value and insight than what I originally wrote." --Mark Cuban, "Blog Maverick"
What is a blogroll?
"It is common for weblog publishers (bloggers) to list on their web page the weblogs that they subscribe to. This list is called a "blogroll" and it facilitates networking in the weblog community (the "blogosphere") as well as provide weblog readers with links to information that they might also enjoy." --NewsGator help
What are podcasts?
A podcast is an audio or video recording posted on-line, often part of a regular series linked by a Web feed. There are thousands of podcasts on every conceivable topic. Podcasts are distributed as MP3 or video files. You can play podcasts on your computer or on the go (with your portable MP3 player). Podcast.com, PodShow.com, Podcastalley.com, and Odeo are good places to find and start learning about podcasts.
National Public Radio (NPR) provides Program Feeds as well as regular feeds. They are very similar to podcasts. Program Feeds let you to listen to NPR programs when it's convenient, not when they're broadcast. You can also listen to programs from previous dates. They also provide true podcasts. Other radio stations as well as "Web Stations" have similar feeds.
Unfortunately, like email, instant messaging, file sharing, web page scripts, etc., podcasts have enabled yet another attack vector, i.e., a way for bandits to attack your computer. For now, I'll point you to some information that Brian Livingston has about avoiding the threat. Look more here later.
More on blogs, feeds and podcasts
- Google has a comprehensive but readable article, along with links to more background information.
- The mother-lode of things you can do with feeds
RSS is an Internet protocol -- it is merely a means to an end. It's used to handle information in a special format, including titles, summaries and in some cases the full contents of posts (entries). Posts usually take the form of short references or articles.
RSS enables things like blogs web feeds, and podcasts. RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication", and is built using "XML", which is just a special text format. Neither RSS nor XML are important in and of themselves. It's the new things that RSS makes possible that are important.