What is RSS?

RSS has several meanings: Really Simple Syndication, Rich Site Summary and RDF Site Summary (RDF stands for Resource Data Framework).

In any case, RSS is a method of summarizing the latest news and information from a website in a lightweight form that can be easily read by any of a number of news readers or news aggregators. The idea is to give users the ability to quickly obtain the latest news and updates from a site in a headline or news digest format. This in turn helps during high-traffic periods by reducing the load on the servers.

What Do I Need to Use the RSS Feeds?

To use our RSS feeds, you need a feed reader (aka news aggregator) installed on your computer. These applications can be set to read the feeds on a recurring basis, generally once an hour or so.

Once you install the feed reader or news aggregator, you can simply add the feed addresses (URLs) to the list of feeds in the reader. The installation instructions for the readers will help you with that. If your news reader or aggregator uses "auto-discovery," simply enter the main site address (eg. http://www.nal.usda.gov) and it will find the available feeds.

What Version of RSS Do We Use?

Our feeds use the RSS 2.0 specification. The feeds give the date, time, title, and the link to the web posting itself along with the actual text of the article.