What is RSS?
RSS is one of those things that can seem extremely complex at first. I’ve found that the following explanation which is taken in part from Brent Dixon’s Blog is one of the best plain English summaries of exactly what RSS is and how to set it up.
RSS, short for “Really Simple Syndication,” allows you to choose the content you like and have it delivered to you instantly.
This means no more bouncing and clicking from site to site to site to see what’s new. The goods are brought straight to your doorstep.
The first thing you need in order to access RSS feeds is a news reader, also known as an aggregator. There are all kinds of news readers, some web-based and used through your browser, some downloaded and used on your desktop or PDA.
And I am happy to report that most of them are completely free.
A Few RSS News Readers:
Windows:
Mac:
Web-based:
Once you’ve found a reader you like, you simply have to figure out what sites you’d like to be kept up-to-date on. To use this site as an example: notice the big blue button that says “Subscribe to our feed” on the right side. If you click it, it will send you to our feed. You can subscribe by cutting and pasting the URL (web address) of the feed into your news reader.
Each news reader will be able to tell you in more specific detail how to make the most of its features. It is also worth mentioning that some browsers, including Firefox, Opera and Mac’s Safari have built-in readers. Expect to see this more and more.
Once you have the content you desire established and fed to your news reader, it’s a simple matter of rinse and repeat for each site you’d like to add.
(Thank you to Brent for allowing me to reproduce his explanation here)
