Blog, feeds, XML and RSS

The blog as a means of divulgation has broken out and it is changing the way information is made. XML has become the technology on which the most ambitious projects are built and terms such as feed, RSS or RDF are by now on every information site, no matter the size. It’s clear that the web has set out on a very precise way and there is likewise no doubt that in the next future it would be quite impossible to invest in web projects without being able to integrate in this new information flow. Let us provide a few basic concepts indispensable not to be cut off, with the help of this short but precise guide for neophytes.

What is a Blog?

From technical point of view, a Blog is an application which allows an individual and independent management and publishing of articles. Yet, to a more accurate analysis, we need have no qualms about stating that the success of this means of communication is actually due to the fact that such software place the contents of a blog at disposal of whoever would like to include them in his/her web site. Thus, having a blog doesn’t simply mean “publishing” independently, but “placing at everyone’s disposal” one’s contents, which truly become a free access information source. As a result, whoever manages a blog “runs the risk” of ideally having his/her articles on any existing site.

XML

XML stands for "Extensible Markup Language". Similar to HTML language, it manages information exchange. A XML file is a simple ASCII text file containing pieces of information which are defined by XML tags. If we consider XML as mother tongue, from its source originate several dialects (RSS, RDF and so on) whose function is to support information exchange between different tools.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is usually dedicated to information exchange on the web. Almost in the whole body of blogs on the net, articles posted by the author are placed at other websites disposal just using RSS format. There are also tools which retrieve updated information without the help of a browser, but using instead specific software: the Aggregators. These represent an evolution of newsreaders and simply gather the information updated by user from sources, without necessarily surfing the web. In order to create aggregator usable contents, technical standard is RDF. Several blogs supply contents in both formats, RSS and RDF.

New information flows

Not a long ago, absolute priority consisted in having one’s web pages indexed by search engines; now, with XML, a new priority is relentlessly pushing its way through the web scene: spreading one’s feeds on all the sites whose topic appears consistent enough, or inserting them in XML contents search engines. Briefly, no longer indexing the actual page, but spreading RSS and RDF formatted page links through web and aggregators. Google has already implemented in beta function a search engine exclusively dedicated to blogs and the well-known “Google News” is nothing but an engine working on online daily papers and other information sources.

A new way of making information

The new technologies have indeed introduced a new role in the informative scene: not only providing or reporting contents, but “organizing” existing contents and possibly integrating them with one’s own. In the light of this, one can eventually assert that any information source, constantly up-to-date and reachable, is a blog. No matter what kind of information (news, articles or whatever), if it is put at one’s disposal using feeds one is talking about blogs.