Make it short and sweet.

Do you only have a finite amount of time to read your daily news everyday on your favorite websites? Really Simple Syndication (RSS) Feeds were developed in March 1999 by Netscape, and they are used to summarize news from websites that regularly are updated. Many news-related sites, web logs and other online publishers syndicate their content as an RSS Feed to whoever wants it. Through specific programming, RSS feeds can be made for one’s own website, but one can also find them across the web in various Online Newspapers, Social Networks, and other sources of e-News. There are many benefits to using this particular type of feed, because not only is news communicated much faster among individuals but also RSS feeds force users of these feeds to visit and read multiple other sites they would not have read before.

According to RSS Specifications, Netscape, the founder of the format, developed these feeds because they “wanted to use an XML Extensible Markup Language [XML] format to distribute news, stories and information.” On March 15, 1999, RSS 0.90 was designed by Netscape; it was the first successful version of RSS format. The second monumental update for the RSS was RSS version 1.0. Published on Aug. 14, 2000, was worked on Rael Dornfest and many of his acquaintances. Rather than using XML coding, Dornfest and his group based the new feed on Resource Description Framework (RDF) coding. "This coding was universal because it was a brand new format that was not similar to any of its previous kind," Dornfest commented about his new breakthrough. The final worldwide update of the RSS was the RSS 2.0, released Sept 18, 2002. While in development, this format was similar to a RSS 0.94 format in terms of its updates. During this update, RSS was controlled by Userland Software. However, on July 15, 2003, UserLand Software transferred ownership of its RSS 2.0 specification to the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School.

RSS Feeds today are commonly used today on all types of computers, smart phones, and other forms of communication. The most common use for these RSS feeds are for either News or Entertainment. However, similar to how much the feeds developed, its uses branched as just as much, if not more. Amazon.com uses RSS feeds to transmit information about potential sales on products. On another note, Law Enforcement officers have used RSS feeds to inform communities about local sex offenders and their locations. It seems that there are hundreds of uses for RSS feeds. What will you use them for?

Tweet Tweet!

Is your life so boring that you consider John Doe going to brush his teeth news? Twitter is "a real time connection network that connects people to the latest information," according to its About Us section. Unfortunately, Twitter has forced its 175 million users since July 15^th, 2006 to statistically more see mediocre and insignificant personal comments than public news. Although Twitter is used by most of its users as a way to communicate the latest public news, others use the social network as a way for teenagers to self-vent, harass, and look for attention. In fact, according to CNET news, most Americans do not even use Twitter. In a recent survey done by CNET, only eight percent of online Americans use Twitter. Of that eight percent, 41% of those individuals check their site "less often [or] never." 

 

Pew internet, an internet "Fact Tank," constructed a recent study on Twitter. After analyzing Twitter's regular users, only 55 percent of these individuals share links to news stories on their pages. However, a whopping 72 percent of these same individuals post updates about their personal lives or interests regularly. Mr. Darren Rowse, 38, the creator of TwiTip, a respected website that helps Twitter users enhance their Tweeting experience, say that he uses Twitter as a source of world wide news. He says, “One of the things that I value very highly about Twitter is the way that it allows me to tap into an amazing community of people from around the world to find out what they are thinking, feeling and experiencing in different ways.” Ironically, barely half of the users on Twitter even use the social network for a source of News. Also, according to  READ WRITE WEB, of the 175 million users on Twitter, only 37% of active Twitter users use their phone to tweet. With such a small percentage of individuals actually connected to followers regularly, how much news is really getting out? If a majority of people on Twitter are tweeting about their own personal matters, there is a very small percentage of users who are actually communicating credible news. Frankly, teenage 'tweets' about Susie Smith getting a puppy are not considered news; therefore, Twitter users do not subscribe to these mediocre news feeds. Understanding this concept, teenagers have taken an alternate method of social networking through Facebook. Facebook has 111,212,840 followers solely in the United States. With those statistics, it is fairly obvious which networking system is more appealing to not only teenagers, but all Americans.  

Blogging is power!

With such a drastic generation gap in today's society between teenagers and adults, social networks and blogs have become a more critical source of news to young adults than television or newspapers. A blog is virtually an online diary that is used to express the writer’s opinion or interests typically centering one central theme. Over the past decade, young adults not only in the United States, but rather all over the world, have become dependent on technology. In addition, because technology is constantly improving itself, there is a demand among these young adults to receive information in a faster, more efficient way. Blogging not only can report news instantly, but there is also a lot of credibility in a blog post’s content that has linked and cited sources. Newspapers and television news programs have not surprisingly struggled to attract interest from young adults, because blogs engage the interest of this generation.