RSS is a simple technology designed to distribute (or syndicate) content from Web sites, including major news sites and blogs. First developed in 1999 by Netscape, the RSS acronym has had a number of meanings, but today has come to be aptly defined as Really Simple Syndication.

RSS is based on XML (eXtensible Markup Language), the specialized Web page language that provides structured data to Internet-based applications. If you looked at an XML file with your browser, it would look like raw code, but when viewed through other programs (like an RSS reader, see below), it provides the basis for a variety of information flows across the Web.

The Mechanism of RSS

There are four steps to publishing and receiving an RSS message.

Step 1: The publisher creates content and publishes an RSS XML file. This file is called the feed, which is the container into which messages are sent. The XML file has a URL associated with it, just like any other Web page. The publisher can then post that URL on his or her Web site.

Step 2: The recipient who wants to receive the feed adds that URL into a program called a reader. A reader is just a program located either on the Web or on the recipient's desktop (many RSS readers are add-ons to Microsoft Outlook) that can read and interpret RSS XML files. There are more than 1,000 readers available, most of them free. RSS is also built into the open-source Web browser Firefox, the Apple Macintosh OSX operating system, and the Web portals AOL, Yahoo!, Google and MSN. Plus, Microsoft is building RSS into the Internet Explorer browser and incorporating it into the next generation of its Windows operating system. As of January 2005, six million U.S. Internet users were using RSS readers, according to the ongoing Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Readers are not proprietary. Any reader can be used with any feed, and a reader can keep track of any number of feeds simultaneously. Two examples of common feed readers are My Yahoo! and NewsGator. The process for subscribing to a feed varies from reader to reader, but usually is a matter of only a couple of clicks.

Step 3: When the publisher wants to send a message to the recipient, he or she simply adds entries to the XML file. Messages have three parts: a title, a summary and a message body.  The title and the summary are added directly to the XML file, along with an entry date. The message body is an HTML file that is referenced in the entry.

Step 4: The function of the reader is to make "virtual visits" to the specified XML Web page at specific intervals (usually once an hour) and check for updates. When the reader finds updates, it makes them available to the recipient. The form in which the message is delivered depends on the reader. In a Web-based reader, it might appear as an entry under the feed banner (see My Yahoo! below). In an Outlook plug-in reader, it would look like an email message.

Individualized RSS

In traditional RSS, everyone subscribes to the same feed, so all subscribers get the same messages (i.e., there is only one RSS XML file and everyone subscribes to it). Individualized RSS (IRSS) differs from traditional RSS in that each recipient gets a unique feed (i.e., there is a separate, unique RSS XML file for each recipient). Therefore, in IRSS each feed can contain unique messages and be tracked at an individual level. This allows marketers to take advantage of targeting, personalization, testing and behavior-based reporting.

For instance, to promote a line of handbags, a marketer might elect to send a message only to women who purchased shoes in the past (targeting). The message might be designed so that the recipient received the same style handbag as the shoes she previously purchased (personalization), and then might randomly serve two different calls-to-action to see which performed better (testing). The results of the campaign could be analyzed in detail so that the different combinations of offer and product could be analyzed for opens, clicks and conversions.

RSSDirect(SM): An individualized RSS solution made just for marketers

RSSDirect goes one step further than personalized RSS delivery by providing a robust front-end that allows marketers to easily mass-generate and populate millions of feeds at a time. Content creation and list manipulation for targeting and segmenting are a snap, and reporting and analytics are incredibly powerful. You get all the marketing intelligence available in other personalized media, such as email marketing, but without the hassle of deliverability, spam and phishing.