The Smart Way to Follow the Latest News and Blogs, Part One: What is a Feed?

(This is the first of a two-part series on RSS feeds, written especially for a few friends and family members who are unfamiliar with what RSS is, and how it can help them manage their time online. Part One introduces RSS feeds. In Part Two, I will describe some of the most popular programs that allow you to take advantage of this technology.)

I have been meaning for a long time to talk about RSS Feeds, and why I strongly recommend that more people take advantage of them, but I keep putting it off. It has always seemed like such a daunting task, and so many other people have done it better already. Today, I’m going to give you a basic introduction, and if you are interested, I will direct you to a few additional sources of information. (See below)

Do you still go to each website, or maybe keep a list of bookmarks that you like to visit a few times a week? How 1999! There is a better way. What if I told you that, instead of wasting time going to your favorite sites to check for new updates, you could let that information come to you?

And it’s even easier to use than email.

I keep tabs on a lot of websites and blogs. Some of them I check daily; others on a much less frequent basis. But whenever possible, I try to subscribe to a blog or website that I like, so that I can be alerted whenever it is updated. There is no way I could check each site, one at a time, to see if they had any new information that interested me.

Fortunately, I don’t have to.

What is a Feed?

There are many useful ways to explain RSS feeds (I will provide a list of links at the end of this article). But one of the simplest explanations I have heard is from Google. In this video, an engineer from Google describes Google Reader as “Your inbox for the web.” (Google Reader is a popular feed reader offered by Google.) Just like with email, whenever your favorite sites or blogs are updated, you receive a notice in your feed reader. You can read the feeds at your own convenience.

There are two kinds of feeds: RSS and Atom, but basically, they work the same. You can think of them as a broadcast or an alert that is sent out automatically whenever a site is updated. By subscribing to a feed, you know when a site has been updated.

To get started, you will need a reader to collect your feeds. You have probably noticed that many sites have an orange icon like the ones in this picture.

If you see one of those icons on a page or in the location bar of your browser, it means that you can subscribe to the site. If you click on the icon and follow the simple instructions, you can easily add it to your favorite reader.

I’m busy, and this sounds too complicated. Why should I care?”

It is actually very simple. Here’s another analogy. Let’s say you have a Post Office Box. The Post Office is not too far, so at first you are happy to stop by every day to check for new mail. But sometimes, there’s nothing there, and other times, when you don’t go, you miss out on important, time-sensitive information. What if someone at the Post Office could contact you whenever you received a message or package, so that you would always know what was in your mailbox?

It’s all about convenience and control. If you only check a few sites from time to time, you might not need to worry about RSS. But if you find yourself spending more time checking websites for updates, it can really save you time. If you decide you don’t want to follow a site anymore, you can easily unsubscribe.

Ok, so how do I get started?

It’s easy. First of all, you might want to read a bit more. Because so many others before me have written such excellent guides to this, there isn’t much point in repeating it all over again. Here are some good places to start:

• RSS in Plain English: This video is a good introduction to RSS and how to use it. Very easy to understand.
• What is RSS?: A good description by Darren Rowse of ProBlogger
• Wikipedia article: RSS: Quite detailed. Great if you want a more thorough explanation.

Next, you will need to decide what kind of reader you want. If you use Yahoo Mail, there is one included. Safari and Firefox both have built-in RSS capabilities, as does Internet Explorer. There are basically two types or readers: desktop and web-based. I have used both, and both have advantages and disadvantages.

Part Two will look at a few of the most popular tools, and how they can help you track feeds more efficiently, so that you can spend your time doing more useful things than constantly checking your bookmarked sites!