Recently, some Google results turn out to have “rss.” in the URL, some are XML files. When I use the Firefox browser to open them, all I see is code called a “document tree.” There is some content text buried down in the code, but it’s a pain to read it that way. I didn’t get the memo. What am I supposed to use to open these document trees? Or… What are they there for, anyway? I let my subscription to Wired expire again.
RSS is “Really Simple Syndication” or “Rich Site Summary,” depending on who you ask. You can use an RSS Reader plugin to automatically display the files properly.
Each RSS file contains a list of links with summary information, often to content on one particular site, and is updated with new links regularly. The idea is you “subscribe” to an RSS feed, and your RSS reader will periodically check for updates in the feed and show new items to you automatically.
A typical RSS page will also contain a reference to a “XSL stylesheet” which is some wizardry which will convert the RXSS/XML document tree into a viewable html page. Your browser is supposed to be smart enough to go grab that automatically & make the conversion for you. That way you see a regular browser page, not all the mumbo-jumbo.
There are two possible causes for the RSS/XML pages you are viewing as raw RSS/XML.
One is that those pages do not have an XSL reference and are intended to be consumed by computers, not humans with browsers. Google doesn’t know or care about that, so they’re including them in search results. If so, the only way you’ll ever view them is as-is.
The other possiblity is there is a setting in your Firefox which is disallowing the download of the XSL. This can happen as a result of other security settings trying to prevent malware attacks via your browser.
If you post links to a couple of the pages you are seeing in raw form, we can determine which is the problem & perhaps offer more detailed advice.