RSS in Everyday Language!
Posted on March 10, 2008
Photo by jintan
One of the most amazing things that I have learned since starting a blog is how to use the Internet efficiently. I have always been pretty web savvy, but before starting a blog I did not know what RSS, web feeds, feed readers, and aggregators were. If all these words sound funny and strange, don’t worry about it, that is what this whole article is about. I’m going to explain all the above and more in every day terms that even the newest person on the web can understand. Basically all these things are ways to make your Internet experience more fun, more efficient, and allow you to get the information you want faster. Most of use use the web to email, share pictures, and find information. This article will focus on finding information and efficiently reading content on the web.
Many of us will go to a several web sites regularly to look for updated and new information that we need. We will often visit a local news media site, a weather site, maybe a local movie theater site, a major news site like BBC, CNN, or Fox News, a sports site to keep up with our favorite team, and so on. It isn’t that difficult to go to these sites, but wouldn’t it be better if the site would let you know when something changed or was updated! Oh, don’t get worried, I’m not going to tell you to get on an emailing list. The original way to notify people of updated content and changes was by signing up or opting in to a email list. Sites would notify you of updates, specials, and other information via email. The problem with the original (old) way was that many took advantage of that permission and created the now hated word SPAM! We all get it, we all hate it, and we all can’t stop it all. No matter how many rules and anti-spam programs you run, it is impossible to get rid of it all. Then we got smart and started making "fake" Hotmail, Google mail, or other free web mail accounts to give out. That was a way around, but now there is a much easier way with out even having to give your email out.
Web Feed and RSS
A web feed is a data format that is used to provide users with frequently updated material from web sites. A web feed can be as simple as a local temperature or stock ticker to a blog’s or news company’s latest headline. Web feeds are in a data format so that computers can organize and distribute them to users easily. After a web feed is syndicated (syndicate means allow to publish) users can subscribe to the feed using RSS.
RSS is basically an automated way to receive updates from your favorite web sites. It’s that simple. Just like you subscribe to a newspaper or magazine, it puts you in charge 100% of the time. It allows the web site to send information to you and does not put the burden of visiting a site over and over to get updates. It allows you to be completely anonymous and doesn’t require your email address. It solves a whole lot of problems.
"Okay, Okay, you’ve sold be Brad. Now what do I do?"
A few more things you need to know then we will get you started. First watch this short video that explains a bit more what RSS is. If you feel like you are familiar enough ,skip on to the next section.
Okay now that you know what a web feed and RSS is lets get you on your way. Getting started is easy and basically takes two steps.
Step 1 - Choose a Feed Aggregator or Feed Reader
Don’t be scared, aggregator is not a bad word! A Feed Aggregator and Reader are the same thing. They are ways to organize and receive all your web feeds. Think of it like your local news stand, but much more organized and less cluttered. Readers come in tow different styles, an online and off line version. A reader is very similar to your email program (online or offline) in that you can go to one place and see all your information. The distinct difference is that a feed reader is more organized than your email. You don’t have to create rules or filters to sort your feeds and you don’t have to go through an inbox looking for a certain piece of information. Your feed reader will be organized by each web site that you subscribe too and also indicate how many new or updated items are there. Depending on how your reader and how the feed is set up, you will be able to read whole articles or just the first paragraph or two with a link to go to the web site. Most readers will be very similar to your email program with your web sites (folders) on the left side in a column and your articles or information (your messages) in the middle or main section.
| Popular Online Readers | Popular Offline Readers |
| Google Reader | Newsgator |
| Bloglines | FeedDemon |
| Rojo | NetNewsWire |
| Net Vibes | Microsoft Outlook (newer versions) |
| personalized home pages like iGoogle, My Yahoo, and My MSN | mDigger |
Step 2 - Subscribe to your favorite web site feeds
Subscribing to your favorite site can be easy or pretty difficult depending on the web site and who maintains the web site. The simplest way to subscribe to a feed is by using your live bookmark function in your Firefox browser or using the RSS function on your Internet Explorer tool bar. In Internet Explorer you will find the standard RSS symbol (as seen below) on your tool bar and it will be grayed out or orange. When the RSS symbol is orange, that means that the current page you are browsing has a feed that you can subscribe too. If the symbol is grayed out, the current page contains no feeds.
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Wonderful Resources
- RSS Marketing Roundup by Copyblogger
- RSS on Wikipedia
- Web Feed on Wikipedia
- RSS Blog by What is RSS
- What is RSS? by XML.com (technical)
- Feed 101 by Feedburner
- What is RSS? by Problogger
Your Thoughts!
Please let me know your thoughts on "What is RSS?" and how you liked the information in this post. I am also going to save most of this post on my What is RSS page so everyone visiting the site can find it. Thank you in advance for the feed back!
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Comments
4 Responses to “RSS in Everyday Language!”
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Yes, I remember being confused by the whole RSS thing when I first started out. And even when I started using it, I didn’t really get the advantage in it. These days I wonder how I ever used the internet without it….
As a side note, I notice you don’t offer a full feed. I think the general consensus on the net is that it is worth offering a full feed, even if it reduces traffic numbers somewhat.
Brad:
You did an EXCELLENT JOB with this! Looks very similiar to mine and the one at Copyblogger except you have a much more visually oriented description of the how’s and why’s of RSS.
How did you do the video aspect of it? I need to learn how to do that - can you teach me?
@ Peter
Thank you for the feedback, I am planning on doing a full text feed as soon as possible. I think it is the best way to go too. I’m also probably going to change my theme a couple minor things on the site as far as aesthetics.
@Stephen
Thanks for the comment, I did get a lot of information form your post on RSS and have wanted to make my own page since I have seen yours. I think it is a good idea to have a “What is RSS?” page because many people are unfamiliar with it. I’m also planning a “Social Networking” page for the future.
Inserting videos from YouTube is quite easy. When you are viewing a video look on the right side of the page for a section with the “embed” code. Some people will turn off this feature, but most are willing to share. If it is there simply copy it into your HTML code for your post. It also has a nice feature so you can change the border colors to match your site.
[...] 1. RSS in Everyday Language - was one of my favorite articles that I have written. When I got started blogging I knew nothing about it and knew nothing about subscribing, RSS, feeds, feed readers, etc. I wanted to share how easy RSS is to use and the time that it saves in a language that everyone can understand. If you don’t know about RSS be sure to check it out and start saving yourself some web surfing time. [...]