iMonk | RSS Help

What is RSS?

If you have an account with Yahoo! or Google, or use an online service like BlogLines or NewsGator, you are already using RSS, whether you know it or not.

RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication," an XML (eXtensible Markup Language) format that web sites use to send you updates via popular online services like My Yahoo! and BlogLines. There are many other RSS Readers and Aggregators to choose from.

What is an RSS aggregator?
An RSS aggregator is a program that retrieves the most recent updates from your favorite blogs and other web sites, and arranges that content (usually the headlines and a brief excerpt) so that it is easy for you to decide whether you want to read the full article (by clicking on the link) or just skip it.

How do I use RSS?
To subscribe to and read a web site in your aggregator, that web site must have an RSS feed. iMonk publishes a RSS feed with the headline and a short excerpt/description of recent iMonk blogs. The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) or address for the iMonk RSS/XML feed is:

http://www.imonk.net/rss/imonk.xml.

(This XML/RSS code is used by browsers and aggregators. Like HTML code, it is not intended to be viewed directly! :)

Why use RSS?
RSS is an easy way for you to be alerted when content that interests you appears on your favorite web sites. Instead of visiting a particular web site to browse for new articles and features, RSS automatically tells you when something new is posted online.

Online services like My Yahoo! and BlogLines gather the content of the blogs and other web sites that you subscribe to, and display them on one convenient, customized web page. With Really Simple Syndication you don't have to visit each web site individually to see what's new — you simply scan the headlines and/or summaries and click to read the full text of the articles that interest you. It's really quite simple!

Most popular web browsers like Firefox (Mozilla), Chrome (Google), and Safari (Apple) already contain RSS aggregators, and can therefore display RSS feeds properly, but some of the older browsers simply display the (ugly) XML source code. (Time for an upgrade? :)

How do I get an iMonk RSS feed?
To subscribe to the iMonk RSS feed, you must either sign up for an online service like My Yahoo! or download the RSS aggregator software of your choice and install it on your computer. When you have done that, click on the appropriate icon in the menu on the right to add an iMonk subscription to your online service, or copy the URL from the orange RSS/XML icon and manually paste it in to your aggregator.

Please see the iMonk Subscription page for more options and details on how to use these RSS aggregators and online services.

URL: http://www.imonk.net/rss/help.html
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