Feeds

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Feed? What?!

A feed, or more properly “web feed“, is a data format that is used for providing updates about a website’s content. That content can be blog posts, news items, digital media files, blah blah blah… things like that.

Two terms (among a load of others) that are related to web feeds are syndication and subscription. Content distributors syndicate a web feed, while users subscribe to it. (Don’t worry, users don’t have to pay anything for subscribing.)

Now the question is, why would you want to subscribe to a web feed? And the answer is, because it lets you know whenever an update is made and saves you time.

Feed readers

To subscribe to a web feed, you will need a feed reader, or an aggregator. Some aggregators are web based, that is, you can use them in your web browser, and others are client applications, which you install in your computer like any other application. The choice of using which is entirely yours.

Wikipedia has a good list of feed readers. I personally use the web based Google Reader.

RSS/Atom

There are two main formats of web feeds: RSS and Atom.

Most feed readers support both of these formats. RSS has been around for quite some time, and was the primary method of web content syndication before Atom arrived.

Feeds of Ulta Seedha

Following are the feeds available for this blog. They are all Atom.

• Posts feed
• Comments feed

And why Atom, you ask?

Atom is stylish. I mean, if you say aar-ess-ess, and then you say atom, you’ll clearly realize that atom has got style that aar-ess-ess can’t even dream of reaching.

Seriously though, Atom has a crystal clear specification. RSS is ambiguous, and has multiple implementations.

And last but not least, this is my blog. My blog, my feed. Period.

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