RSS Project

Updated 10 May 2026 (created 15 March 2023)

• Description
• Project parts
• Recommendations
• Links

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and is an open XML format for web feeds. RSS 2.0 is the current version from 2009.

An RSS feed contains items that are either links to web content, standalone posts, or a combination of the two types. Many news sites, blogs, and other websites already have RSS feeds that announce new content. RSS feeds with standalone posts are less common.

RSS feeds can be built from scratch or using a library. (more)

RSS feeds can be transformed into human-readable web pages with XSLT stylesheets. (more)

RSS feeds can be generated automatically when new content is published on a website that supports RSS or you can post manually with an RSS feed writer. (more)

RSS feeds can be followed with an RSS feed reader, which is an application that retrieves the items of multiple RSS feeds and aggregates them into one timeline. (more)

These are recommendations for practical improvements of the RSS 2.0 specification:

• The rating element should be updated to a current standard.
• The enclosure element should also allow https URLs in addition to just http URLs.
• The managingEditor, webMaster, and author elements should allow values starting with an IANA-registered URI scheme or least values starting with mailto:, http://, and https:// so web pages with contact forms can be linked in addition to just email addresses which should continue to be allowed for backwards compatibility.

• RSS (Wikipedia)