News Aggregators, such as NewsGator and AmphetaDesk, allow users to subscribe to feeds. The services work by checking an Internet address at a regular interval, usually once an hour, to see if new content has been added.
The feeds are written according to one of a few competing shared specifications, which are collectively referred to as RSS. RSS is simply a specification that a site uses to produce a page of XML code. The code breaks up each entry or story on a website by title, description and direct link. A news aggregator then determines how to display that output in a reader.
RSS (most commonly translated as "Really Simple Syndication" but sometimes "Rich Site Summary") is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format. An RSS document (which is called a "feed", "web feed", or "channel") includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically.
The name Atom applies to a pair of related standards. The Atom Syndication Format is an XML language used for web feeds, while the Atom Publishing Protocol (AtomPub or APP) is a simple HTTP-based protocol for creating and updating web resources.
