2. Overview
Syndication is the process of making a
summary of a Web site’s information available
to other Web sites and applications
A Web feed represents the list of items that
are being shared
Feed reader applications and devices access
the Web feed of each of the subscribed sites
and deliver any new content
Chapter 3: Syndicating Content 2
4. Exploring Web Feeds
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is one of the
first and most popular types of Web feeds
Web sites providing feeds usually display an
orange Web feed icon
– Feed icon
– RSS icon
– XML icon
Google Reader is a popular feed reader
application
Chapter 3: Syndicating Content 4
7. Exploring Web Feeds
Many bloggers syndicate their blogs’ content
as Web feeds
News sites syndicate news headlines
Monster provides an RSS feed with job
postings
eBay alerts users of daily deals
Amazon keeps users informed about
bestsellers
Flickr notifies users of new photos
Chapter 3: Syndicating Content 7
10. Subscribing to
and Reading Feeds
The ability to subscribe to a feed is standard in
many Web browsers
The method by which you subscribe to feeds
varies with each Web browser
Every browser presents Web feeds differently
– Feeds are syndicated the same
• XML (Extensible Markup Language)
Chapter 3: Syndicating Content 10
15. Features of Web-Based and
Client Feed Readers
Blogs can contain gadgets to display Web feeds in
sidebar gadgets
– Gadgets update when blog is loaded or refreshed
Blogger defaults to automatically create feeds for its
hosted blogs
– Also syndicates full content
Professional bloggers manage their feeds and collect
information about how users interact with them
– Feed managing services
– Metrics
– Reach
Chapter 3: Syndicating Content 15
17. Features of Web-Based and
Client Feed Readers
Web-based applications incorporate data from
Web feeds to present it visually
Chapter 3: Syndicating Content 17
18. Formats for Web Feeds
RSS 2.0 is the most widely used version of
RSS
– RSS is closed to further modifications
Atom is a newer, evolving alternative to RSS
– Not as simple as RSS, but is becoming popular
Differences between RSS and Atom are
transparent to the user
Chapter 3: Syndicating Content 18
19. Formats for Web Feeds
XML (Extensible Markup Language) is the
underlying technology used for describing
content syndicated using RSS and Atom feeds
– Tags describe information
• Opening tags
• Closing tags
– RSS and Atom feeds are the most common types
of content represented in XML
Chapter 3: Syndicating Content 19
22. Exploring Podcasts
A podcast is a series of audio or video files
that are broadcast to a computer or personal
media player over the Internet by a publication
in an RSS feed
– Podcast reader
• iTunes
– You can download and watch podcast episodes
directly on a Web site, or with a Web-based
application
Chapter 3: Syndicating Content 22
27. Anatomy of a Podcast Feed
Chapter 3: Syndicating Content 27
28. Creating Podcasts
Requires basic equipment for recording and
editing digital audio and video
– Most laptops have built-in Webcams and
microphones, as well as recording software
Chapter 3: Syndicating Content 28
33. Summary
Syndication is a way to distribute and share Web
content
– Web feeds
Users can subscribe to Web feeds using a Web
browser or a feed reader application
Content publishers syndicate their content as feeds
using either the RSS or Atom formats, represented in
XML
Podcasts are RSS feeds with an enclosed multimedia
file
Chapter 3: Syndicating Content 33
