Technology is getting more and more complex, but at the same time, amazing technological benefits are available to us average Joes without too much fiddling around. That is what this column will be covering. Once a week every Monday, right here at BloggingStocks.com, I'll feature an easy-to-use hack, gadget, or service that really can make your life better. Geeks, technophiles and early adopters have plenty of other places to look for hot new technologies to try. Here you'll find technology for the rest of us.
While the term RSS is well known among the wired, recent surveys show that many people still aren't aware of what RSS is, or even what it can do for them. Well, if you're interested in following updates to most sites these days without actually having to constantly visit them, or if you're interested in having news or search terms delivered to you so that you can keep abreast of a topic important to you, then you need to find out more about how to leverage RSS to make your life easier.
What is RSS?
RSS stands for real simple syndication. It's also known as a site's 'feed.' The feed is a compressed summary of all the newest content being posted on that site. So for example a blogger will often have an RSS feed of their latest posts. But a news site like the BBC, if you look for the little feed icon, will offer you their latest stories via RSS. In fact, most news sites now offer you an RSS feed of some sort so you can keep track of the latest news.
How to access feeds
The trick in best using RSS feeds effectively is to figure out how you're going to read the RSS feeds best. Web browsers like Safari and Firefox allow you to subscribe to feeds. But here they're called 'live bookmarks,' further confusing the situation. I find it confusing to subscribe to RSS feeds this way.
There are a couple ways I usually recommend new RSS users get into using RSS feeds. The first is to use FeedDemon (on a PC) or NetNewsWire Lite (if on a Mac). These two programs install on your computer. FeedDemon has a 30 day free trial, and NetNewWire Lite is free, although you get some advanced options if you pay for it. Both programs let you import your RSS feeds and read them just like you would read your email in a standalone program. The 3 pane window is easy to navigate, and it gives you a great way to organize all your feeds. Both programs are easy to use.
When a new post to a website pops up, it's like getting an email. The post appears in your program, and you can click on the subject header and read it. The reason I recommend using programs like this is that anyone who's been using email will catch on to RSS. I often say RSS is like instant email from a website whenever it updates.
Depending on what browser you use to subscribe to a site's RSS varies. But clicking on the orange feed icon or the words 'RSS' will usually cause you to get a pop up asking how you want to subscribe to that feed. With an RSS feed reader installed it will often, once installed, intercept and just add your new feed into its list of feeds when clicked. Straightforward and easy.
The next option I recommend is to use a web-based feed reader. There are a host of these, but I find Bloglines the easiest to use. Newsgator, the company that handles FeedDemon and NetNewsWire also have a free online RSS reader, but I find that it can be slow to use, though it does offer the option of synching your FeedDemon or NetNewsWire with it so you always have the same feeds to read. Google Reader is very full featured, but the user interface takes a while for new RSS users I've coached to get a finger on. Bloglines was very straightforward.
Okay, now what I can do with RSS beyond just following the latest news? There is an amazing array of uses you can put RSS feeds to beyond just following news that someone has posted. The real useful trick about RSS is putting it to work for you.
Track sales and items you want to buy
If you shop at Amazon.com, RSStalker is the first site you should tool on over too once you have a feed reader all set up. RSStalker lets you subscribe to various RSS feeds of Amazon.com price drops. If you've purchased something expensive from Amazon, you should add that product into your feed reader using RSStalker's help. If the price drops, you'll know it, and since Amazon has a 30 day price guarantee, you can save some money. RSStalker also lets you track price drops on wishlist items, or in general categories. In a similar fashion, at Spendfish's feeds section, you can create a custom Amazon search of any products with a certain percentage discount. Say you want a custom RSS feed of any Amazon product that's at least 50%, you can configure that RSS feed and subscribe to it.
Research a topic without lifting a finger
When researching a topic or trying to keep abreast of a subject in the news it's easy to head over to Google News and then search for the item you want to track. Once you've done that, look on the left for the 'RSS' link. If you click on that, it will give you the RSS of that search. Now whenever new news comes in, you can see it right in your favorite feed reader.
Technorati.com also offers you a search of tens of millions of blogs. Chances are a topic you're interested in is being discussed somewhere. Run a Technorati search and subscribe to the results by clicking on the feed button in the upper right corner. Anytime a new post on your subject comes up you will now see it in your feedreader.
Search Craig's List for jobs, apartments, or whatever you need
Craig's List lets users post all sorts of things, and you can search through them. If you look down at the bottom right, there is an RSS link. If you've just searching for something, try subscribing to the RSS feed, it's a link to the search. Pretty nifty.
This is just a sampling of the uses of RSS. The trick is to look around at any site you're on and see if it has RSS functions. If it does, start playing. RSS makes information and search overload a lot easier to process if you take the time to invest in figuring out how to use it.
Tobias Buckell is an author, freelance writer and professional blogger.
RSS stands for real simple syndication. It's also known as a site's 'feed.' The feed is a compressed summary of all the newest content being posted on that site. So for example a blogger will often have an RSS feed of their latest posts. But a news site like the BBC, if you look for the little feed icon, will offer you their latest stories via RSS. In fact, most news sites now offer you an RSS feed of some sort so you can keep track of the latest news.
How to access feeds
The trick in best using RSS feeds effectively is to figure out how you're going to read the RSS feeds best. Web browsers like Safari and Firefox allow you to subscribe to feeds. But here they're called 'live bookmarks,' further confusing the situation. I find it confusing to subscribe to RSS feeds this way.
There are a couple ways I usually recommend new RSS users get into using RSS feeds. The first is to use FeedDemon (on a PC) or NetNewsWire Lite (if on a Mac). These two programs install on your computer. FeedDemon has a 30 day free trial, and NetNewWire Lite is free, although you get some advanced options if you pay for it. Both programs let you import your RSS feeds and read them just like you would read your email in a standalone program. The 3 pane window is easy to navigate, and it gives you a great way to organize all your feeds. Both programs are easy to use.When a new post to a website pops up, it's like getting an email. The post appears in your program, and you can click on the subject header and read it. The reason I recommend using programs like this is that anyone who's been using email will catch on to RSS. I often say RSS is like instant email from a website whenever it updates.
Depending on what browser you use to subscribe to a site's RSS varies. But clicking on the orange feed icon or the words 'RSS' will usually cause you to get a pop up asking how you want to subscribe to that feed. With an RSS feed reader installed it will often, once installed, intercept and just add your new feed into its list of feeds when clicked. Straightforward and easy.
The next option I recommend is to use a web-based feed reader. There are a host of these, but I find Bloglines the easiest to use. Newsgator, the company that handles FeedDemon and NetNewsWire also have a free online RSS reader, but I find that it can be slow to use, though it does offer the option of synching your FeedDemon or NetNewsWire with it so you always have the same feeds to read. Google Reader is very full featured, but the user interface takes a while for new RSS users I've coached to get a finger on. Bloglines was very straightforward.
Okay, now what I can do with RSS beyond just following the latest news? There is an amazing array of uses you can put RSS feeds to beyond just following news that someone has posted. The real useful trick about RSS is putting it to work for you.
Track sales and items you want to buy
If you shop at Amazon.com, RSStalker is the first site you should tool on over too once you have a feed reader all set up. RSStalker lets you subscribe to various RSS feeds of Amazon.com price drops. If you've purchased something expensive from Amazon, you should add that product into your feed reader using RSStalker's help. If the price drops, you'll know it, and since Amazon has a 30 day price guarantee, you can save some money. RSStalker also lets you track price drops on wishlist items, or in general categories. In a similar fashion, at Spendfish's feeds section, you can create a custom Amazon search of any products with a certain percentage discount. Say you want a custom RSS feed of any Amazon product that's at least 50%, you can configure that RSS feed and subscribe to it.
Research a topic without lifting a finger
When researching a topic or trying to keep abreast of a subject in the news it's easy to head over to Google News and then search for the item you want to track. Once you've done that, look on the left for the 'RSS' link. If you click on that, it will give you the RSS of that search. Now whenever new news comes in, you can see it right in your favorite feed reader.
Technorati.com also offers you a search of tens of millions of blogs. Chances are a topic you're interested in is being discussed somewhere. Run a Technorati search and subscribe to the results by clicking on the feed button in the upper right corner. Anytime a new post on your subject comes up you will now see it in your feedreader.
Search Craig's List for jobs, apartments, or whatever you need
Craig's List lets users post all sorts of things, and you can search through them. If you look down at the bottom right, there is an RSS link. If you've just searching for something, try subscribing to the RSS feed, it's a link to the search. Pretty nifty.
This is just a sampling of the uses of RSS. The trick is to look around at any site you're on and see if it has RSS functions. If it does, start playing. RSS makes information and search overload a lot easier to process if you take the time to invest in figuring out how to use it.
Tobias Buckell is an author, freelance writer and professional blogger.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-26-2007 @ 8:20PM
Tom Barlow said...
I'm fond of the newish Google Reader, and would recommend checking it out for your RSS feeds also.