Times they are a’changin’—and the World Wide Web is no exception. With the new generation of information seekers and creators, Web venues are burgeoning. We blog, post streaming videos, offer podcasts and Webinars, join social networking sites, dabble in the world of shared content tagging…and use RSS feeds.
OK, so what is RSS? Rich Site Summary (RSS) is a standardized group of Web feed formats that publish regularly changing Web content. Those of us who want to stay informed by receiving up-to-date information can now do so with RSS. And the fact that the RSS format is standardized makes it easy for sites that publish content—such as news headlines, audio/video clips, and Weblogs—to automatically syndicate their content as an RSS feed. What’s more, we viewers can easily combine feeds from a host of our favored sites—eliminating the need to log onto each site and surf through content. And finally, we save time (and reduce any privacy concerns) because there’s no more need to join a myriad of e-newsletter subscriptions.
So—how to get started? We suggest you check out the variety of RSS readers that are available. (Don’t forget the Web-based feed readers such as My Yahoo, Google Reader, and Bloglines.) Remember to double-check each one to ensure it will work with the platform (Microsoft® Windows®, Linux®, Mac®, and so forth) you’re running. Once you’ve selected your RSS feed reader, select your desired sites that syndicate content. (Look to see that they’ve displayed an icon indicating XML, RDF, or RSS availability, sometimes viewed as
.) Set ‘em up, sit back, and stay informed with your favorite feeds. It’s as simple as R-S-S!
