RSS: The No Frills Guide for Bloggers
Wednesday, August 15th, 2007 at 12:00 pm
RSS is probably the most useful thing about the internet nowadays, yet articles explaining RSS tend to be lengthy and overcomplicated. Here’s my version:
What is an RSS feed?
An RSS feed is a list of the most recent entries on a blog. You get 2 kinds; a full feed listing entire articles and a partial feed listing only post titles or excerpts.
Finding the feed
I am sure you have seen this little icon around. That means there is an RSS feed in the house, yo! Don’t be afraid of it, next time you come across one, click it and see what happens. Sometimes RSS feeds are indicated by the letters “RSS” or “XML”. RSS links are often orange.
The benefits
- RSS saves time. You don’t have to keep going to the home pages of your favourite blogs to check if they have been updated. Just check your feeds. New items will appear at the top of the list, and by clicking a new link, you will go directly to that blog entry.
- RSS makes surfing the web convenient. You can gather all the feeds from your favourite sites in one place. Some people refer to this as “syndication”. This makes it even easier to see which sites have been updated most recently.
What does “subscribing” mean
Subscribing to a feed is not like subscribing to a newspaper or magazine. RSS feeds don’t cost anything. Subscribing basically means bookmarking a feed, as you would bookmark a favourite website.
You might also come across the word “aggregate” when dealing with RSS. This is just a geeky word for “displaying” the RSS feed in a readable way because RSS feeds are made of XML which could look like gibberish.
Where do I keep my feeds?
Good question. I will name 3 ways of organising your RSS feeds:
- Online. The benefit of using an online feed-reader is that you can access your feeds from any computer - they are not stuck on your home or work computer, they are stored online. Here are 3 examples of websites you can use to organise your feeds:
- You can install feed reading software on your computer. Try RSS Owl. It offers versions for Mac, Windows and Linux.
- Browsers. Most new versions of internet browsers, like IE7, Firefox and Apple Safari have built in RSS reading capabilities, so you won’t need to install any additional software. I personally use Firefox to check my feeds. Some email programs like Outlook 2007 and Thunderbird offer the same sort of function.
Using RSS feeds will change your life, trust me! Please feel free to add your comments on using RSS below.
Heri Says:
August 15th, 2007 at 5:33 pm
A+ Simple explanation - quick and to the point. I use Firefox as well to check my feeds; easy, simple, and without the bulk of additional RSS readers.
Miguel Vera Says:
August 15th, 2007 at 6:56 pm
I just love my iGoogle page, I can’t seem to get attracted by any other feed reader.
Majd Mash Says:
August 16th, 2007 at 11:52 am
RSS is very useful indeed, but after adding so many feeds to my firefox, I ended deleting most of them,,they were clogging the view!
great post, great blog…keep it on :)
Tom Says:
August 16th, 2007 at 12:13 pm
Hey,
You have a really nicely designed site, well done! It’s not often you come across a site that really makes you sit back and think… I really need to redesign my site, this is awesome :) Good work, and I like your use of imagery.
Tom
Blogsolid Says:
August 16th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
Hey Majd, I know what you mean, I have to delete some feeds every now and again, but I guess that’s a good thing because I can’t keep up with all of them anyway!
Tom, thanks for the compliments - I’m really glad you like the site!
Imar
redwall_hp Says:
August 16th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
Nice RSS introduction. I gave up on writing my own “What is RSS?” page and I’m now using this video instead: http://www.problogger.net/arch.....de-to-rss/
Majd Mash Says:
August 18th, 2007 at 10:51 am
well…i found this great website for RSS feeds..candy for the eye :)
http://rssvoyage.com
redwall_hp Says:
August 18th, 2007 at 4:58 pm
Cool!
Blogadivi Says:
August 20th, 2007 at 3:25 pm
I personaly use as RSS reader “RSS Bandit”, it has some features that RSS Owl does’t have :)
Before that I used Oulook 2007 which is pretty cool (2 in 1) but it gets too heavy when you use lots of RSS feeds like me …
Blogadivi Says:
August 20th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
Does anyone know how to build an RSS feed on a Flash site?
Blogsolid Says:
August 20th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
Hi Blogadivi, that’s worth researching! There must be a way to publish RSS feeds from Flash without having to manually code the XML? Check out these 2 Flash blogs, they both have RSS feeds…
http://www.pierinc.com/
http://www.ikwordjournalist.be/ (i think this one is Belgian)
Post a comment if you know something about RSS in Flash :)
AbuRenaz Says:
August 21st, 2007 at 10:44 pm
Hello Dir ,,
Just I want say ” that’s realy realy a nice style ! , fantastic color , cute font ! ”
Good decorum : ) !
bintar Says:
August 24th, 2007 at 6:23 am
RSS is absolutely brand of effective productivity. Thanks blogsolid, for remiding me that.
Dwayne Says:
January 23rd, 2008 at 6:56 am
You are the man. I never knew what RSS was until now. We are always so busy and it is hard to keep up with everything. RSS sounds great, can’t wait to get started.
Info was nice and simple and to the point. perfect.