Webpages inform their readers about new news and contributions on request. In addition to the classic e-mail newsletter (newsletter, mailing list), RSS news tickers are also very popular. These inform you either about all new contributions, or purposefully only about individual ranges of topics, articles (as well as uploaded new video films, sound files etc.), or about new reader comments, completely after your choice.

Essentially, RSS is a file that is tagged with news items, such as headlines, or text excerpts that contain a reference to the entire post. Complete articles including web links and illustrations can also be included in an RSS news ticker.

How does the reader find out about news on webpages? He "subscribes" to the individual Internet site news tickers that interest him with a program. For a better overview, news can be divided into any self-chosen news categories (politics, nutrition, etc.). Each time the application software is started, it checks whether there are any new messages. This means that the news tickers of the respective Internet pages are actively called up and checked for new entries. The desired update rhythm (hourly, half-hourly, or shorter) can be set in the program settings.

RSS offers advantages for readers as well as for website owners: The reader no longer has to reveal an e-mail address, instead the user actively subscribes to the user's own RSS application, but without any registration: The retrieval of a news ticker is just as (relatively) anonymous as the retrieval of a website. The website owner no longer has to worry about time-consuming registration and checking processes for mailing lists or e-mail distribution lists, the provision of an RSS news ticker is completely sufficient.

In virtually all content management systems and blog sys­tems, RSS feeds are provided fully automatically af­ter the page owner has activated them. For the entire page, for individual articles, and for their comment

areas. Many video portals also automatically publish RSS news tickers for individual channels. Manual creation using RSS editors is also possible.

With RSS, news from numerous websites can be captured at a glance: New news entries are highlighted in the overview, e.g. by bold markings and by indicating the number of unread news, as well as optionally by coloured highlights. When reading text extracts, it is possible to load the complete article into the RSS program or into a separate web page reading program (browser). Of course, articles can also be loaded completely from the outset. RSS messages can be displayed, opened and read like e-mail messages within a three-part user interface, under numerous grouping criteria.

Firefox extensions like "Morning Coffee Quantum" offer similar functionality to RSS by opening multiple web pages of a list at the push of a button in separate tabs. However, the reader himself must check the page content for news, there is no automatic compilation of news as with RSS news collectors (aggregators).

Many websites publish RSS feeds as well as RDF and Atom feeds to keep the reader up to date. Of course, modern programs like RSSOwl can also handle these formats.

In today's information overload, news tickers are a great help in exploring the essential information. It is easier to get new news from numerous web presences bundled and presented at a glance than to have to search for them in different page areas. If there is no time for news analysis, you can take a look at past news entries afterwards (like a headline archive), or run a search for personally relevant keywords

RSS news tickers are also an excellent alternative to e-mail mailing lists from the point of view of freedom and politics. They allow readers to be actively informed without running the risk of missing news due to e-mail censorship: Web site owners report time and again that newsletters on new posts or calls could sometimes not be sent or received because the sender was not compliant enough with the e-mail service provider from a political point of view.

Of course, news ticker compilations can also be exported and imported, including individually created categories and other grouping and configuration criteria. Web site owners therefore have the option of offering recommended news ticker collections for download, which readers can then import into their own RSS reader program.