Really Simple Syndication (RSS)
Several years ago I discovered the joys of RSS. The ability to monitor the activities of a slew of different websites, blogs, news sources, and even podcast channels from a single location was a godsend and a major time-saver.
If you’re not familiar with RSS, it’s not complicated stuff – despite its fairly nondescript abbreviation. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and lets you sit back and have your favourite sites come to you with new content, rather than forcing you to go looking for it.
In terms of getting started there are only 3 things you need to do:
- Select an RSS Reader;
- Locate the RSS feeds for the websites you wish to subscribe to; and
- Enter the RSS feed addresses into the feed reader.
The RSS Reader then acts as your inbox for any new content published on your subscriptions. All you have to do is check the feed reader for updates. Some providers even have small applets you can install that will notify you of new content, or even entire software packages that enable offline reading.
Locating RSS Feeds
Typically the fastest way to locate the RSS feed for a site is to look for the standard RSS icon in the address bar of the browser. Clicking on this icon will give you several options. You want the one that says something along the lines of “Subscribe to this RSS feed.”
NB: Often times there will also be an option to add to Del.icio.us. Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site that tracks websites, but not their feeds. It’s invaluable for certain purposes, but not RSS.
Selecting the subscribe option will take you to a page that contains the feed itself. Increasingly this page is formatted nicely for easy viewing and will often contain additional options for subscribing via specific RSS readers; however you will occasionally see a page full of XML code which more than likely will mean nothing to you. Either way all you need to do is copy the feed’s URL, which is displayed in the address bar of the browser.
NB: Feed URLs can have several different file extensions including .XML, .RSS, or even no extension at all. For example the RSS feed for this blog is http://techticker.net/feed. For general purposes they all mean the same thing.
Once you’ve located the feed URL go to your RSS feed reader, click add new feed and enter the feed’s URL in the field provided.
NB: The specific steps to add a new feed depend on the reader, but generally speaking the option to add a new feed or subscription will be clearly labelled somewhere obvious.
Selecting a Feed Reader
Feed Readers fall into two categories: those you access online, and those you access via a program installed on your computer.
Over the years I’ve experimented with several different options – both online and locally stored. However due to the nature of my work I was more or less forced to go with the online option. This is no longer necessary, for reasons I’m about to explain.
Locally installed feed readers have historically had drawbacks – most notably lack of synchronisation. I’m on many different computers over the course of the day but still want access to all of my feeds. In the past this meant having to install the same software on every machine and re-subscribing to the same feeds over and over again.
The next drawback was version control. If I discovered a new feed I’d have to remember to add it to every machine, lest the subscriptions would be different. I’d also have to remember which articles I’d read on which machine, and which I hadn’t. It was an absolute mess; so to save my sanity I ended up with an online reader.
Online readers such as Bloglines and Google Reader don’t require the installation of any software and are accessed via a web browser. To access them you visit the website and login using your account. Any changes you make are stored on the provider’s servers rather than locally on your machine, so your subscriptions remain exactly the way you left them regardless of the computer you’re on.
Fortunately innovation and development have continued in the realm of offline RSS readers. Newsgator for example now provides some excellent free software that supports offline reading, and additionally like most email clients such as Outlook and Thunderbird, will also synchronise your actions once you’re back online again.
You still have to install the software on any machine you use, but after that it’s just a matter of logging into your free account so the software knows what your subscriptions are and can ensure your changes are tracked.
This is a huge deal for me because I spent an amazing amount of time commuting to work everyday, and subscribe to an equally amazing number of feeds. So combining my reading time with commute time is a long-desired blessing.
For more information on RSS readers and Feed aggregators see any of the following:
February 7th, 2008 at 11:08 pm
Thanks for a really great explanation on this! RSS can seem murky sometimes, but it’s such an easy thing when explained right - thanks! Just one note: in google reader, you don’t even need to get the feed URL, greader will find it for you if you just put in the regular URL of the site. This makes it SO easy to add things to my reader, probably too easy as my unread items are hovering around 500
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February 8th, 2008 at 4:38 am
Hi Kate
Very good point about Google Reader. There are so many different options it’s really hard to keep track of them all and how they work - so I’d forgotten.
I only just moved from Google Reader after using it for quite some time. It did almost everything I needed it to, except work offline.
It’s a great offering for this area - and its ease of use is fantastic for new users. So I recommend it as the first port-of-call - at least to try out anyway.
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