Have you seen this icon and wondered what it was about?
This is the icon representing Really Simple Syndication (an RSS feed), which is basically an easy way to subscribe to to a website’s content. Most blogs, and many professional news sites such as the New York Times, provide this as a means to easily keep track of any news that has recently been posted. Using a feed reader, such as Google Reader, will allow you to keep track of multiple feeds at a time. So instead of visiting multiple websites a day to see if any new content has been created, you can simply open your feed reader which will fetch new articles for you, drastically reducing the amount of time required to find new useful information, and increasing the amount of time for you to actually read that content. And best of all it’s free!
To get started with RSS you will need a feed reader. My current favorite is Google Reader, which I have been using for about a month. The most convenient feature for me is the ability to log in to my Google account and see what is new. Before that I used Firefox’s live bookmark feature, which creates a bookmark of the feed. The biggest drawback to this system is the difficulty in tracking a large number of feeds.
Another option for subscribing to RSS feeds is to use a desktop-based feed reader. Mac users can check out Vienna or NetNewsWire. Windows users can look into FeedDemon or RSS Owl. The biggest drawback to a desktop based system is the inability to view your feeds when you are away from your home computer.
If you would like to try it out (and support my site by subscribing), go to the top right corner of this website and click on the RSS icon where is says “subscribe in reader.” The feed burner page should open up, asking you what program you would like to use to subscribe. You will see Google as an option, as well as a few other options. If you are using a desktop based solution you should be able to select it in the scroll down window.
A few more links for reading:
If you’re trying to weigh the pros and cons of a desktop vs web-based reader, Lifehacker has a great write-up comparing the two.
If you decide to go with Google Reader, Lifehacker also has a few tips to help you become more efficient. And if that’s not enough, there is a whole slew of posts with the Google Reader tag. And in case you didn’t notice, I like reading Lifehacker’s articles quite a bit.
0 Responses to “Keep track of more information using RSS feeds”