The Oprah definition
The technical acronym for
RSS is “Really Simple Syndication”, an XML format that was created to
syndicate news, and be a means to share content on the web. Now, to geeks and
techies that means something special, but to everyday folks like you and me,
what comes to mind is, “Uh, I don’t get it?”
So, to make
RSS much easier to understand, in Oprah speak, RSS stands for: I’m
“Ready for Some Stories”. It is a way online for you to get a
quick list of the latest story headlines from all your favorite websites and
blogs all in one place. How cool is that? (Click on image for larger
view)
Suppose you
have 50 sites and blogs that you like to visit regularly. Going to visit each
website and blog everyday could take you hours. With RSS, you can “subscribe” to
a website or blog, and get “fed” all the new headlines from all of these 50
sites and blogs in one list, and see what’s going on in minutes instead of
hours. What a time saver!
That one place
where your RSS list is created is called an RSS Reader, and it gathers all the
headlines from all the websites and blogs you have subscribed to. In a moment, I
will describe how to get an RSS Reader.
Subscribing to RSS feeds
But
first, to “subscribe” to a website or blog’s RSS feed simply means that you are
telling that website or blog, “Yes please. Send me your story headlines.” It’s
like subscribing to a magazine or newsletter. Instead of getting a magazine or
email, you will just get a list of headlines sent to your RSS reader. If the
headline looks interesting to you, all you have to do is click on the headline
and you’ll be sent to the whole story.
In order to
subscribe to a website or blog’s RSS, all you have to do is click on an RSS
symbol like one of those shown in the diagram above, or a text link of the words
“Subscribe to our RSS feed” on the website or blog. Typically, you can find
these RSS symbols or text links in your browser window, on the sides of the
website page, or on the bottom of the page. The publishers of the websites and
blogs really want people to subscribe to their RSS, so they will make it very
easy for you to find the subscription links.
RSS Readers
Now, because
nothing is ever standard on the web like dealing with different operating
systems, Mac vs. PC, and different flavored browsers like Internet Explorer,
AOL, Safari, and Firefox, the way to get an RSS reader will be dependent on what
browser you like to use, and how accessible you’d like your RSS list(s) to
be.
Just like
there are flavors of web browsers, you may see and hear of different flavors of
RSS XML feeders like RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0, and Atom. Again, the flavors are only
important if you want to get techie. If you stick to looking for an RSS symbol
like I have shown you in the diagram, you will be just fine.
If you’d like
your RSS list to be accessible from any computer or mobile device you may have
like a PDA, laptop, or cell phone, some popular RSS readers include (and almost
all are FREE):
MyYahoo
MyMSN
MyAOL
MyGoogle
Bloglines
FeedDemon
(this one costs money)
NewsGator (there is a cost
for mobile accessibility)
NetVibes
PageFlakes
Shrook (For Mac users. Free trial
and then there's a cost.)
Lektora
Attensa
(more for enterprise, and there's a cost)
Update: If there are any other good RSS readers I've missed,
please let me know and I will add them.
As you can
see, there are a plethora of choices for you. All are good RSS readers, so your
choice will simply come down to the style that appeals most to
you.
RSS as Live Bookmarks
Browsers
like Safari and Firefox allow you to subscribe to RSS feeds through the browser,
and it’s called “live bookmarking”. Currently, you can only do live bookmarking
in Internet Explorer if you have IE7 which is still in Beta. Oprah translation:
Non-geeks cannot do live bookmarking in Internet Explorer because it’s not done
yet. The limitation with using RSS in live bookmark form is that you only have
access to your RSS list from the computer you created the bookmarks on. If you
want the flexibility of complete accessibility, then I recommend going the RSS
Reader route.
live bookmark feed for the celebrity gossip site TMZ.com using the Firefox browser on a
PC.
Here’s an
example of RSS live bookmark feed for the Yahoo
Entertainment Celebrity page using the Mac Safari
browser.
So there you
have it. Are you now Ready for Some Stories? Enjoy!
This post is part of the ProBlogger "How
to" Group Writing Project. Please visit Problogger for other wonderful "How
tos."
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