Are there blogs and websites that you frequently go to for updates? Wouldn’t it be great to get these updates?
You can with a technology called RSS.
What is this? It appears as a fun little orange icon on a website you are visiting. Represents an RSS feed. Depending on who you ask, RSS is an acronym for Really Simple Syndication, Ready for Some Stories, or Rich Site Summary.
Next to this little button is usually an invitation to “Subscribe to this feed.” When you click on the link, you may find yourself looking at a bunch of computer code that you may not understand.
What you are looking at is a computer language called XML, similar to HTML. All you need to know is that this is the language used to connect what you are reading with a link to your computer and any updates on the content.
The advantage of RSS is a time saver. Instead of having to search websites for updates or weigh another Google search, all you have to do is check the RSS folder on your desktop or open your RSS email alert.
You can choose all the sites you want to get updates for and sign up for them if they offer you the option to “Subscribe to this feed”.
The first thing you need to do is install an RSS “tool” or “Feed Reader” on your system.
There are four types of feed readers to choose from:
Desktop feed readers: With a desktop reader, you have an icon that sits on your desktop. Desktop readers to choose from include AmthetaDesk, RSS Bandit, or BlogBridge.
Browser feed readers: Some browsers offer extensions that provide this functionality. Popular readers like Firefox’s Live Bookmarks, as well as Internet Explorer 8.
Email feed readers are easy to use. All your feeds go to your email, so you’ll need to set it up for this. Mozilla Thunderbird, Newsgator Inbox or Google Alerts. You can tell these readers how often you want to receive ads.
Another popular option for those who use their smartphones more often than their computers is the mobile feed reader. Yahoo, Google and AOL offer the option to receive alerts.
The best way to get started is to choose and install a reader on your system. Once you have that in place, go to a website or blog that you visit frequently. The site will most likely have an RSS icon on the page.
Click the icon, choose where you want this information to live, such as a folder in your reader or, in the case of Google alerts, it will appear in your email.
If you are a fan of blogging, there are several ways to find the blogs you like. You can go to Technorati (http://technorati.com/) and do a search on the blog by typing the subject. Technorati probably has the most extensive list online. You can also go to Google blog search and find blogs in their database. Almost all blogs have the RSS option available. By connecting to the feed, you will be notified whenever there is an update.
You can also narrow your search if you are not interested in an entire site but only in certain topics. Most sites will offer RSS feeds for various segments within the site. Another way to narrow your search for a topic is to put the phrase in quotation marks. This is a handy way to limit any search across all search engines. For example, if you’re a sports fan and like a certain football team, you’ll want to refine your search to “San Francisco Giants,” not the San Francisco Giants. Without the quotes, your source or search will separate words and dump an ocean of information into your lap, most of which will be about everything but the San Francisco Giants.
Happy hunting.
