Ok, I admit Im new..

Well, I really dont know what an RSS feed really is. I know it has something to do about content. But I dont understand what it is. And before I go ahead and figure out how to implement it I want to know what its for

So anybody able to explain it to me?

 

Okay, i've been doing a lot of reading. This is what I understand and please correct me if I am wrong.

An RSS feed is basically a seperate file programmed in XML that contains a link, and a forum-like informative post (title and content). RSS readers essentially link to this file and manipulate that data so it is shown properly according to the set template. An atom.xml file is much the same except coded a bit different. They are used for viewing information from your website on a different site or stand-alone reader. However the content is not taken from the webpage itself, just a duplicate of it in a file (or shortened version).

The RSS file can be created and maintained by a content management system (CMS) which creates the file for you or you can write in notepad. Theoretically you could feed your own pages with content as well. Such as if you ran a network of sites, you could control which sites get which articles.

My question now, is how do put an RSS reader on a website? Do I need to buy and install a program on the server. Do I need to script my own? Is there anything free? Everything I found were stand alone programs that would read the RSS file.