What is RSS?

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is an XML-based format for sharing and distributing Web content. It is updated whenever new content is published to the site. News readers "subscribe" to news feeds, which means they download lists of stories at an interval that you specify (every 30 minutes, for example), and present them to you in your news reader. A news feed might contain a list of story headlines, a list of excerpts from the stories, or a list containing each story from the website. All news feeds will have a link back to the website, so if you see a headline / story / class cancellation of interest, you can click on the link for that piece of content and will be taken to the website to read it.

Watch the "RSS in Plain English" video to learn more.