The technological roots of RSS, or Rich Site Summary, can be traced back to 1995, when Apple revealed its Meta Content Framework. Basically, the MCF allowed metadata to be structured via throughout websites and other data sources. The first incarnation of RSS was actually called RDF, which stood for Resource Description Framework, and was launched in March 1999 via Netscape. Upon its first update four months later, it was dubbed RSS 0.91.
Over the past 14 years, RSS news feeds lists have been a fixture within the realm of online news. While only about 8 percent of web users still utilize RSS, it continues to be popular among a dedicated group of no nonsense online new fanatics. For those who question the future of RSS, the millions of homeless RSS users who were left in the wake of the demise of Google Reader is the only evidence they need to prove otherwise.
Although RSS has been around for what is the equivalent of eons in terms of internet technology, RSS lists are an excellent resource for web users who are interested in receiving feeds related to specific interests. Among popular general interest feeds are food, sports, technology, and health news RSS feeds. While social media sites offer similar news feed services, social media is also cluttered with advertisements, game requests, wall posts, status updates, and annoying tweets that seem to swallow up the feeds users consider most important to them.
Even though tens of millions of web users can get more online news than they will ever need via their trendy social media accounts, why do millions of others still prefer to access world news, sports, and health news RSS feeds via RSS aggregators that are supposedly so archaic? Well, the fact is that many people appreciate RSS aggregators because they do not have all the bells and whistles of social media, and, thus, provide them with a reliable, no nonsense way to access their favorite feeds. In fact , it is very possible that RSS feeds will still be around when Facebook and Twitter become little more than memories.