What is RSS?

RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication, and it enables just that. Web content on news sites, blogs, and Arlington.org changes regularly, and it can be difficult to keep up with it all. RSS allows you to see abstracts of your favorite content in one place, so you can avoid visiting and sifting through dozens of websites. It's kind of like having the newspaper delivered to your door instead of buying it from a newsstand.

By subscribing to a Arlington.org RSS feeds, you'll be able to keep up with the latest content added to the website from weekly traffic reports to the latest news on your Dallas Cowboys and Texas Rangers to exclusive coupons to shops and entertainment venues around Arlington.

What does mean?

You may recognize the universal feed icon or these "chicklets" from your favorite websites, blogs, and podcasts. These icons represent content in any format - text, audio or video - to which you can subscribe and read/watch/listen using a feed reader.

Why is RSS a good thing?

Technology evolution in online publishing has made it really easy to not only publish regular updates to web-based content, but also keep track of a large number of your favorite websites or blogs, without having to remember to check each site manually or clutter your email inbox. You can now streamline your online experience by subscribing to specific content feeds and aggregating this information in one place to be read when you're ready!

How do I read feeds? or subscribe to feeds?

If you want to browse and subscribe to feeds, you have many choices. Today, there are more than 2,000 different feed reading applications, also known as "news aggregators" (for text, mostly) or "podcatchers" (for podcasts). There are even readers that work exclusively on mobile devices.

Some require a small purchase price but are tops for ease-of-use and ship with dozens of feeds pre-loaded so you can explore the feed "universe" right away. Free readers are available as well; a search for "Feed reader" or "Feed aggregator" at popular search sites will yield many results. A handful of popular feed readers are listed at the bottom of this page.

A typical interface for a feed reader will display your feeds and the number of new (unread) entries within each of those feeds. You can also organize your feeds into categories and even clip and save your favorite entries (with certain applications).

If you prefer, you can use an online, web-based service to track and manage feeds. Online services give you the advantage of being able to access your feed updates anywhere you can find a web browser. Also, upgrades and new features are added automatically.

Popular RSS Feed Readers & More Resources