RSS feed
An RSS feed is a standard file listing a site's latest content. How it works, what it changes for the reader, and why it has survived.
An RSS feed is a public file, published by a site at a fixed address, listing its most recent content in a standard format: title, link, date, summary. Software called an RSS reader polls that file at regular intervals and tells you what is new. The abbreviation stands for "Really Simple Syndication".
The difference from a social network fits in one sentence: there is no algorithm. The order is chronological, nothing is hidden or boosted, and you only see the sources you added yourself. The site, for its part, does not know who downloads the file: no account, no profile.
Many assume it is dead because outlets stopped displaying the link. The format was never abandoned, though: podcasts rest entirely on it, and most news sites still expose a feed, even without advertising it.
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