Podcasting and RSS Feeds
Podcasting is
what has come about from the uses of the internet
and a computer, as it has evolved, Podcasting
was born. The actual term Podcasting was born
from the Apple's iPod, but you do not have
to have a iPod to listen or watch popular
podcasts downloaded from the internet. Podcasting
works in a similar way to listening to the
radio. But instead of just tuning in, you
have to download the particular podcast that
you want to listen to from a website on the
internet. These podcasts are then downloaded
onto your computer through a RSS feed.
The term RSS is said to stand for Really Simple
Syndication. This is not a definite explanation
of the term but it is widely known as this.
The RSS feeds are really essentially only
web pages, but they are made to be read by
computers connected to the internet and not
by a person browsing the internet for information.
To make the most of using RSS feeds you need
what is commonly known as a news reader. The
news reader is essentially a piece of downloadable
software that allows you to see any new information
that is registered to that feed. There are
many different versions but when in relation
to podcasts, the news reader and the RSS feed
in combination will automatically download
the new pieces of information directly to
your personal computer or in fact your media
player. The news reader will search the RSS
feed each time the personal computer or media
player is booted up. It has therefore helped
in taking away the time consuming process
of searching for new information manually.
Once you gave decided on a specific news reader
then the next step is to choose the information
and content you want to have downloaded on
your computer. You can easily subscribe to
certain information and episodes and receive
them automatically when the news reader picks
up new information on the RSS feed. It is
just as easy to unsubscribe from this service
as all you generally need to do is click on
the unsubscribe button on the website that
you originally subscribed from.
Thus podcasts nowadays are being put to a
variety of uses. There are many different
kinds of podcasts and you find that they are
being put to a variety of uses by the general
public as well as by those who are interested
in using podcasts as a promotional tool.
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