About RSS Feeds and Podcasts - australia.gov.au http://australia.gov.au/ About RSS Feeds and Podcasts - australia.gov.au - Syndicated Content en-au http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Copyright 2008 Commonwealth of Australia GUM 60 About RSS Feeds and Podcasts

RSS

RSS is a file format that is used to let people know when a certain website or part of a website has been updated with new content.

The service which alerts users to these updates is known as an RSS feed. A feed, like a website, is a file of computer code that your computer converts into something that can be read on your screen. Unlike a website, an RSS feed cannot simply be viewed in your browser window. To view an RSS feed, you will need to download an RSS reader (also called a feed reader or RSS aggregator).

When loaded into an RSS reader, a feed will deliver a brief summary of each update that is made to the website it comes from, along with a link to the updated area of the website.

RSS feeds can usually be found linked from a small orange icon such as RSS or XML or Rss Feed.

Podcasting

Podcasting is an advanced use of the RSS format that allows the delivery of audio content (usually MP3 files) instead of an updated website.

When a podcast feed is loaded into a podcast reader, the feed will deliver a brief summary of new audio files as they are made available. Instead of providing a link to a website, this summary will include a link to those audio files. Users can then select which files to download for later listening, either on their computer or on a portable MP3 player.

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