# What's an "RSS"?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-an-rss/290623>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 18, 2005, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-an-rss/290623 "2005-02-18T00:18:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2005, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-an-rss/290623/1 "2005-02-18T00:18:26Z")

</div>

I keep seeing these links for “RSS” everywhere from [Friendster.Com](http://Friendster.Com), to LiveJournal, and now to Hotmail. It seems everyone wants you to ‘link your RSS’ to their service.

What the heck is “RSS” and what does it do? Is it some new sort of messenger/blog thing?

Tripler  
Is it the new wave in browser cookies or something? 😕

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2005, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-an-rss/290623/2 "2005-02-18T00:23:59Z")

</div>

[http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss](http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2005, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-an-rss/290623/3 "2005-02-18T00:39:17Z")

</div>

- 
  - 
    - One “what is it/howto” site: [http://www.webreference.com/authoring/languages/xml/rss/intro/](http://www.webreference.com/authoring/languages/xml/rss/intro/)  
…

- General info: [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=rss+news+feed+faq&btnG=Google+Search](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=rss+news+feed+faq&btnG=Google+Search)  
~

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2005, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-an-rss/290623/4 "2005-02-18T01:10:57Z")

</div>

Aaaah, I thank you guys!

Tripler  
**R** eally **S** imply **S** igline.