About Syndication and RSS for Curbside Properties
If you're new to RSS and syndication on the web, we hope this page offers a
straightforward exploration of the purpose and promise these changes bring to
Internet publishing and browsing as you know it now.
What is RSS?
"RSS" stands for Really Simple Syndication, Rich Site Summary, and/or
Rockdale, Sandow, and Southern (Railroad) (if you trust the good folks
at AcronymFinder.com).
Really Simple Syndication is probably the most widely agreed-upon choice. As far
as we are concerned, all three acronyms do an inadequate job of describing what
RSS actually is: RSS is a standard for publishing regular updates to
web-based content. Using this standard, Web publishers provide updates,
such as the latest news headlines or weblog postings. Meanwhile, consumers use
RSS reader applications (or one of a growing number of online services) to
collect and monitor their favorite feeds in one place (RSS content from a
publisher, viewed in one of these readers, is often called a "feed").
Consumer Bottom Line: RSS makes reviewing a large number of sites in a very
short time possible.
We have setup some links to help our users easily add Curbside Content to their My Yahoo!, My MSN, and a few other services. Click the links below to set up your RSS feed for listings from Curbside Properties.
Links to setup an RSS feed with Curbside Properties
Who publishes RSS feeds?
Some of the biggest names on the web now offer content using RSS feeds:
In addition, thousands of weblog authors publish feeds to keep themselves
better connected to their readers/admirers/critics. Weblogs are a driving force
behind a recent surge in interest for RSS and syndicated content. By the end of
2004, we feel that the number of top-tier sites not syndicating any
content will be in the minority.
How do I read RSS Feeds?
If you want to collect and browse feeds you have many choices, but there are
two primary categories of feed reading applications: installable desktop
programs and online services. There are many desktop applications for Windows
and Mac OS system users, including NetNewsWire (Mac OS X).
Both require a small purchase price but are tops for ease of use and ship with
dozens of feeds pre-loaded so you can explore the syndication "universe" right
away. Free readers are available as well; a search for "RSS Reader" at popular
search sites will yield many results.
If you would prefer to use an online service to track and manage your feeds,
you have the advantage of being able to access your feed updates anywhere you
use a web browser. Also, any
upgrades or new features are added automatically. The trade-off comes in
different (some would say fewer) features and slightly slower performance versus
desktop systems. NewsGator, Bloglines, and MyFeedster are probably the
three best-known examples of web-based feed reading services.
How can I publish my own RSS Feed?
If you have a website or weblog, you can add RSS syndication as a publishing
option, in some cases automatically. How easy this is to accomplish depends
entirely on how your site is served today. If you are using a hosted publishing
tool like TypePad or Blogger, you may already be publishing a feed
without even knowing it. Investigate whether your provider's administration
tools offer feed-related options or controls. Other types of websites and
application platforms may require some programming skills in order to add RSS
syndication capabilities.
Our service Curbside RSS Service allows our users to search for Properties listed on Curbside Properties via an RSS Feed.
Where is RSS headed? What's next after text?
2004 is proving to be a big year for RSS to go mainstream. And that's just
for bringing you the latest headlines, personal publications, and other textual
content. RSS will gain whole new levels of fun/utility/value once it moves
beyond just text and links. You can get a glimpse of the future today:
- Commerce: Apple's iTunes Feed
Generator informs you of updates to their growing music library across
genres you specify.
- Internal and Client Communication: Basecamp, a web-based project management
tool, allows you to monitor the latest updates, communications, deadlines, and
other activities across your internal and client projects via RSS.
- Images: Flickr's
photo sharing tools provide all sorts of RSS feeds -- try the feed listed at
the bottom right of any of the public tag listings to get
updates whenever anyone posts new photos with that tag. Textamerica's photoblogging service also
provides feeds containing photos you have uploaded.
- Entertainment: How about a feed for TV programming you might have missed
when it first aired?
And finally, some technical back-story
RSS is based on XML, a
widely used standard for information exchange between applications on the
Internet. RSS feeds can be viewed as plain text files, but they're really
designed for computer-to-computer communication. We should point out that RSS is
just one standard for expressing feeds as XML. Another well-known choice is Atom. Something of a format war is under
way among the most impassioned developers in both camps; we can only hope the
dust settles soon and the development community embraces a single evolutionary
standard. Most feed users simply want fresh content and couldn't care less about
the underlying protocol.
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