You have probably heard the terms blog, RSS,
XML and feeds. Learn what these terms mean below.
What is RSS
In a world heaving under the weight of billions
of web pages, keeping up to date with the information
you want can be a drag. Wouldn't it be better to have
the latest news and features delivered directly to you,
rather than clicking from site to site? Well now you can,
thanks to RSS.
Blogs are essentially online journals where information
is presented in reverse-chronological order (most recent
entries at the top, oldest at the bottom).Blogs allow
content to be easily syndicated using RSS and XML.
RSS and XML work hand-in-hand. RSS stands for Really
Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary (it all depends
on who you ask). What is more important than what the
letters stand for is that RSS allows you to have content
delivered or used by you in different ways. You can subscribe
to an RSS feed and read content through a feed (or news)
aggregator, an online service), through an e-mail client
plug-in, or many other ways. You can use RSS to include
content on your blog or Web site. You can create a custom
Web page using RSS feeds.
XML is short for eXtensible Markup Language. It is similar
to HTML in that it allows data to be formatted with tags.
The syndicated feeds (RSS, explained below) that blogs
and other Web sites present are often written in the XML
language.
Most sites will use an orange XML graphic -- -- to note
that a feed is available. Simply copy the associated link
and paste it into an aggregator, Web page, blog, etc.
You will find an example of the XML graphic on our home
page in the left hand menu bar.
Not all websites currently provide RSS, but it is growing
rapidly in popularity.
How do I start using RSS feeds?
In general, the first thing you need is something called
a news reader. There are many different versions, some
of which are accessed using a browser, and some of which
are downloadable applications. All allow you to display
and subscribe to the RSS feeds you want.
Once you have chosen a news reader, all you have to do
is to decide what content you want. For example, if you
would like the latest mortgage, loan, property news stories,
simply visit our home page and you will notice an orange
RSS button on the left hand side.
If you click on the button you can subscribe to the
feed in various ways, including by dragging the URL of
the RSS feed into your news reader or by cutting and pasting
the same URL into a new feed in your news reader.
Some browsers, including Firefox, Opera and Safari, have
functionality which automatically picks up RSS feeds for
you. For more details on these, please check their websites.
Create,
edit and publish RSS feeds in minutes.
First Mortgage Trust is not responsible for the content
of external internet sites We
reserve the right to prevent the distribution of news
content. First Mortgage Trust does not accept any liability
for its RSS feeds.
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