NEWS: What is RSS?
And why should I care?
Unlike getting website updates or ezines by email, RSS feeds give you absolute, 100% complete control over the news that you get. You don’t have to reveal your email address. If you want to stop receiving content, you don’t have to request to be “taken off the list.” One click, and poof… the subscription is gone.
RSS is a simply an Internet technology standard that allows busy people to receive updates to internet content of interest. That is the essence of an RSS feed – you subscribe and then receive new content automatically in your feed reader.
What is a feed reader?
You may already be using a form of feed reader, and not even realize it. If you use personalized home page services like My Yahoo or My MSN, you’ve got RSS capabilities built in. That’s how syndicated content like news, weather and stock quotes appears on your personal page. You can also add content from any blog or other site that uses RSS to provide updates.
Other web-based tools are primarily dedicated to feed reading only. One of the most popular web-based feed readers at this point is Bloglines, and it’s also free and easy to get started with.
For more info on getting started with Bloglines, read Bloglines (and aggregators in general) from Carson McComas of WorkHappy.net.
If you use the Firefox browser, you can also receive RSS feeds from your tool bar by using the Live Bookmarks function. The next version of Internet Explorer will add this feature as well.
Finally, there are desktop-based feed readers. These function somewhat like an email program for feeds. Examples include Newsgator and Feed Demon.
If it sounds complicated, it’s really not. And things will get even easier when the next version of Outlook integrates feed-reading capabilities. So, you’ll have the same convenience that email subscriptions offered in the old days, without any of the terrible consequences of giving out your email address to potentially unscrupulous characters.
Sounds good. So how do I subscribe to a Feed?
If a website has RSS facility then you will probably findthis new standard RSS icon somewhere on the site:
Sometimes there will be an icon for your particular reader that will take you to the appropriate subscription page. You may see these (among others):
Finally, you may also see little orange buttons that say XML or RSS. Often these chicklets will take you to a page that looks like code gibberish. In this case, you simply cut and paste the page URL from your browser window and manually paste it into your feed reader subscription box. Hopefully this last method will soon disappear, never to be seen again.
In summary: RSS solves BIG problems.
RSS is being adopted at a phenomenal rate, because it’s a good thing for everyone. The benefit to readers is obvious. And it’s good for publishers too, because we want to make sure that people feel comfortable subscribing, and that our message is not nuked by an overzealous spam filter.
“Thanks to Copyblogger for a helping hand with this RSS mini-tutorial.”
Unlike getting website updates or ezines by email, RSS feeds give you absolute, 100% complete control over the news that you get. You don’t have to reveal your email address. If you want to stop receiving content, you don’t have to request to be “taken off the list.” One click, and poof… the subscription is gone.
RSS is a simply an Internet technology standard that allows busy people to receive updates to internet content of interest. That is the essence of an RSS feed – you subscribe and then receive new content automatically in your feed reader.
What is a feed reader?
You may already be using a form of feed reader, and not even realize it. If you use personalized home page services like My Yahoo or My MSN, you’ve got RSS capabilities built in. That’s how syndicated content like news, weather and stock quotes appears on your personal page. You can also add content from any blog or other site that uses RSS to provide updates.
Other web-based tools are primarily dedicated to feed reading only. One of the most popular web-based feed readers at this point is Bloglines, and it’s also free and easy to get started with.
For more info on getting started with Bloglines, read Bloglines (and aggregators in general) from Carson McComas of WorkHappy.net.
If you use the Firefox browser, you can also receive RSS feeds from your tool bar by using the Live Bookmarks function. The next version of Internet Explorer will add this feature as well.
Finally, there are desktop-based feed readers. These function somewhat like an email program for feeds. Examples include Newsgator and Feed Demon.
If it sounds complicated, it’s really not. And things will get even easier when the next version of Outlook integrates feed-reading capabilities. So, you’ll have the same convenience that email subscriptions offered in the old days, without any of the terrible consequences of giving out your email address to potentially unscrupulous characters.
Sounds good. So how do I subscribe to a Feed?
If a website has RSS facility then you will probably findthis new standard RSS icon somewhere on the site:
Sometimes there will be an icon for your particular reader that will take you to the appropriate subscription page. You may see these (among others):
Finally, you may also see little orange buttons that say XML or RSS. Often these chicklets will take you to a page that looks like code gibberish. In this case, you simply cut and paste the page URL from your browser window and manually paste it into your feed reader subscription box. Hopefully this last method will soon disappear, never to be seen again.
In summary: RSS solves BIG problems.
RSS is being adopted at a phenomenal rate, because it’s a good thing for everyone. The benefit to readers is obvious. And it’s good for publishers too, because we want to make sure that people feel comfortable subscribing, and that our message is not nuked by an overzealous spam filter.
“Thanks to Copyblogger for a helping hand with this RSS mini-tutorial.”
Labels: news, technology
posted by Holiday Velvet Team at
2:27 AM
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