Probably this is one on first thing you notice when you visit a blog. A Web Feed is a data format used to share frequently updated content with other users. In the case of blogs, podcasts or forums, this is a great tool to provide the most recent post to your readers.

How it works?

All right, you now the meaning of Feed, but now what? well to get the information provided on the Feed, you need to use an Internet Aggregator. Once you got an aggregator or feed reader, you need to subscribe to the respective feed. You can subscribe to a feed by entering the feed’s link into the reader or by clicking an RSS icon in a browser that initiates the subscription process. Once subscribed, the reader checks the user’s subscribed feeds regularly for new content, downloading any updates that it finds.

You can subscribe to a feed in two different ways, by an reader and by Email. If you chose the email subscription, you will receive the content directly in your inbox.

The Formats

There is two kind of formats:

• RSS: RDF Site Summary or colloquially knew as Really Simple Syndication is the most common kind of feed format. Is a format used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines or podcasts. An RSS document, which is called a “feed”, “web feed”, or “channel”, contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with their favorite web sites in an automated manner that’s easier than checking them manually.
• ATOM: The Atom Syndication Format is an XML language used for web feeds, while the Atom Publishing Protocol is a simple HTTP-based protocol for creating and updating web resources. The usage is identically the same than RSS.

So as blogger, what format may you choose? Well the most of blogger use RSS and this because that format is more compatible with more readers, nothing more. With an ATOM or an RSS feed you will get exactly the same content .