What is RSS —
and why bother?

The short version

RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication”. A website publishes a machine-readable file — the feed — listing its most recent posts: title, date, summary, link. An RSS reader fetches those files regularly and merges every new post into one list. The result is a newspaper whose editor is you.

The decisive difference from social media and news apps: there is no system sitting between the source and you deciding what you see first. There is no reach to buy, and no reason to keep you in the app as long as possible.

What RSS is still good for

• Completeness. You see every post from your sources, not just the ones that performed well.
• Quiet. No comment sections, no recommendations, no push cascades about topics you never cared about.
• Portability. Your subscription list is an OPML file. Export it and load it into any other reader.
• Reach beyond the big names. Trade blogs, clubs, public bodies, YouTube channels, podcasts and release notes all have feeds, but appear in no news app.
• Privacy. Fetching a feed tells the source far less about you than a logged-in visit inside a platform app.

How to find a website's feed

1. Search in your reader. The fastest route: type the publication's name into the source catalogue. For most known outlets that is all it takes.
2. Scan the site. Many sites link their feed in the footer or under “Subscribe” / “RSS”.
3. Try the usual addresses. /feed, /rss or /feed.xml after the domain works very often — on WordPress sites almost always.
4. Just paste the page URL. Feedrium tries to discover the matching feed from a pasted address.

These are feeds too

• YouTube channels (every channel has a feed)
• Podcasts — the entire podcast ecosystem is built on RSS
• GitHub releases and software changelogs
• Job postings, official gazettes, club news
• Newsletter archives of many writers

RSS, Atom, JSON Feed — what is the difference?

Practically none that you need to know. RSS 2.0 and Atom are two XML formats with the same purpose, JSON Feed is a more modern variant. Readers generally understand all three. When people say “RSS” day to day, they usually mean all of them.

What is an RSS reader?

A reader does three things: it fetches your feeds regularly, merges them into one list, and remembers what you have already read. Good readers sync that read state across your devices, so an article you read on your phone does not reappear on the desktop.

Feedrium is such a reader — with a curated catalogue of 59,000+ sources so you never have to hunt for feed addresses. You can try how the feed feels right on the homepage, without signing up.

Your own news feed in ten minutes

1. Pick a reader. A comparison of the well-known options is on the best RSS reader page.
2. Subscribe to five sources. Start small: two national outlets, one local source, one trade magazine, one blog.
3. Read for a week. Change nothing. You will quickly notice which source delivers too much or too little.
4. Tidy up. Unsubscribe from anything you keep skipping. A feed with 30 good articles a day beats one with 300.
5. Back it up. Export your OPML and keep it. That makes you independent of any provider — including us.

Common misconceptions

“RSS died when Google Reader shut down”

Google Reader was discontinued in 2013 — the format itself was untouched. Practically every content management system still generates feeds automatically, and the whole podcast ecosystem runs on it.

“I will miss important things”

Rather the opposite: a ranking routinely hides articles that get few clicks. In a chronological feed the short notice with no attention potential shows up too — and sometimes that is exactly the relevant one.

“Isn't that the same as a newsletter?”

Similar in purpose, different in ownership: a newsletter needs your email address and lives with a provider. A feed subscription lives in your reader and can be cancelled at any moment without asking anyone.