College of Public Health

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is an XML-based format for content distribution/syndication.

RSS provides a simple way for you to be notified when content that interests you appears on your favorite Web sites. Instead of visiting a particular Web site to browse for new articles and features, RSS automatically lets you know when new content is available.

Many news organizations and blogs offer RSS feeds for use in news aggregators, often called feed readers. Such feeds often include headlines, summaries, and links back to the original article online.

A great introduction to RSS is available at Google's Feedburner website.

A Podcast is a simple technology that lets you subscribe to audio or video broadcasts via the Internet. Those broadcasts - which are really MP3 audio files or MP4 video files - are downloaded to your computer automatically, and then, if you wish, sent to your handheld audio/video player such as the iPod. Users who subscribe to a podcast feed are then able to listen or view the content using a host of free audio / video software such as iTunes as well as through many feed readers. Such software enables automatic downloading of new content to your computer as well as to mobile MP3 and video players, such as the Video iPod, as new content is made available.

A good introduction to Podcast is available at the Apple-iTunes website.

Great tips for podcast fans from the Apple-iTunes website.