One of the internet's oldest technologies may be more useful than you think—especially in the age of AI and automation.
Most of the web today runs on algorithms. Social platforms decide what gets seen. Search engines rank content. Recommendation systems push what they think will engage you.
But there's a fundamental problem with that model: you're dependent on someone else's black box.
RSS offers something different: a standardized way to publish updates that anyone can consume, without an algorithm deciding what you're allowed to see.
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. At its core, it's just XML.
A website publishes a feed that contains:
Article titles, descriptions, publication dates, author information, categories, links, images, and more. Any system that understands XML can read that feed and extract the information programmatically.
Most people don't think about RSS. They follow podcasts. They subscribe to YouTube channels. They check their email newsletters.
But behind many of those systems, RSS is quietly doing the work.
Podcasting is the clearest example. When you subscribe to a podcast, you're usually subscribing to an RSS feed. The podcast app monitors that feed. When a new episode appears, the app detects it automatically.
It's infrastructure. And good infrastructure doesn't need to be visible—it just needs to work.
Compare two scenarios:
Scenario 1: A creator publishes entirely on YouTube. The algorithm changes. Reach drops 70%. The platform changes its monetization policy. Revenue disappears. They're completely dependent on one company's whims.
Scenario 2: A creator publishes on their own website with an RSS feed. The feed is available to podcast apps, news readers, email services, and automation tools. Losing one distribution channel doesn't eliminate their entire business.
For businesses publishing content, RSS provides an important layer of independence. You own the source. You control the feed. Distribution channels can read it or not—that's their choice, not your constraint.
Where RSS gets genuinely interesting is when you combine it with automation.
Example workflows:
RSS becomes a lightweight source of structured data that other systems can watch. That's useful infrastructure for competitive intelligence, content repurposing, and automated workflows.
Here's where it gets interesting: AI systems need structured, machine-readable inputs to work with effectively.
Imagine monitoring 100 industry publications:
That's fundamentally different from hoping a social media algorithm shows you relevant content. You control the sources. AI helps you process them. You decide what matters.
If your website publishes regular content—blog posts, news, product updates, case studies—an RSS feed gives compatible systems another way to discover it.
Not every reader will use it. That's fine. Not every customer follows your LinkedIn or reads your newsletter either.
The smart approach is diversification:
Each distribution channel works independently. Together, they give your content multiple ways to reach your audience.
Most modern web frameworks and blogging platforms generate RSS feeds automatically. WordPress, Ghost, Substack, Medium—they all provide feeds by default.
If you're building a custom site or application, generating an RSS feed is straightforward:
It's not complicated. And it's a standard feature that gives your platform interoperability with a large ecosystem of readers, aggregators, and automation tools.
This isn't an argument to abandon social media, email, or other distribution channels.
RSS is a piece of the puzzle. It's particularly useful for:
It's infrastructure. Use it when it makes sense for your business model.
Whether you're setting up blogs, RSS feeds, automation workflows, or content distribution systems, we can help.