The secret of RSS exposed; how it works and why you need it!
You’ve seen the little icon, saying subscribe to RSS feed? You can find my link at the top of this page. Perhaps you’ve wondered what it is, how does it work, and should you try it?
I’m going to share a secret with you. For a long time I was too cautious and hesitant to try using the RSS subscribe buttons I was seeing on other sites. I wasn’t clear about how it worked, and was paranoid of what I might be getting myself in to. The last thing I need is more spam and junk mail. I wonder if you’re thinking; Aha me too!
Well it’s time you found out what it does and why it’s actually a very desirable feature especially if you use the Internet frequently and want to keep track of your favorite sites. And you deserve to have it explained in plain words, not technical jargon.
I’ve searched for and tried to find out about RSS feeds but all I can find is more geek speak, i.e. techno mumble jumble. I’ll never understand why these experts don’t stop and ask themselves “am I making myself clear could anyone from a 4th grader to a senior understand and grasp my explanation?
First what does RSS mean? My definition is Real Simple Service, or Reader Simple Service, although technically it stands for Really Simple Syndication. It’s a service for scanning headlines of the latest news through a reader that delivers you the information from the site you’ve subscribed to.The easiest way to get set up is through clicking the subscribe to RSS on the site. It will ask you to choose which reader you want to receive your updated news headlines on. I suggest you select Google Reader, which is what I use. As soon as you click the subscribe to RSS, and then select Google Reader it’s automatically creates your feed in Google Reader and you’ve finished. You will then be able to use Google Reader to check the sites news summaries as often as you like.
You can set up your preferences on Google Reader on the spot or later if you prefer. If you already have any other type of Google account, it will just seamlessly add reader to your other Google tools. Eventually as you become more familiar you will find its fun to explore the site and customize your account, add, change or modify a Google tool.
For any site you want to keep abreast with you can subscribe to its RSS. This frees you from spending time going to multiple sites to browse the latest news and saves time waiting for the sites to load. It can eliminate the need to get email newsletters and other news which ends up clogging up your mail and which you need to unsubscribe from.
So what are you waiting for? Click on the RSS link at the top of the page and get Blogmedaily delivered to your Google Reader whenever there is a new post.
Please come back and visit the site and leave a comment about whether you’ve found this post helpful. Use this link to see a great podcast from Classic Scoble show with Nick Baum, product manager on the Google Reader team. Here’s the link: Google Reader Demonstrated.
