What's an RSS?
More and more websites are offering RSS feeds to distribute their posts. If you have never heard of RSS, or have but don't know what to do with it, then this is the tutorial for you.
It means Really Simple Syndication. But what it really means is that you can check out websites without having to go to them. This is particularly handy if you want to check up on some sites regularly. It can really save you a lot of time.
If you use Firefox as your web browser (and read this article to find out why you probably should be), then you have an easy method for looking at RSS feeds (this is not exclusive to Firefox, but it's one of the two methods I use). Look in the Address Bar. See the little orange thing?
If you click on it Firefox will show you the feed and give you the option to subscribe to it using Live Bookmarks. Click "Subscribe Now," and place the bookmark in your Bookmarks Toolbar. You now have a one click method to look at that website. Click on your live bookmark (RSS Feed). See that list of articles? Click on any of them and you will be taken to the full article. Are you starting to see how handy this can be?
I use Firefox, and have a few Live Bookmarks set up, but some of the sites I like to check daily have way too many articles to be easily dealt with. There's just no way to keep up with them, and Live Bookmarks only shows you a current list, not a total one. To avoid missing posts, I use Google Reader. If you have an account with Google already (i.e., with Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Documents and Spreadsheets, or any of the other Google services, then you already have access to Google Reader with the same username and password you already use. See other posts on this blog for more about the other Google services.
Once you are logged in to Reader you can search for RSS feeds from websites you would like to check, add them, organize them, and read them. You can Share items from your feeds on your blog, or Star them to look at again later.
It's easy. If you are browsing on some site, let's say it's Boing Boing (one of my favorites), and want to add their feed to Google Reader, just click on the little orange thing in the Address Bar in Firefox. When it brings up the feed page, copy the address and then go to Google Reader. Click on "Add Subscription" and paste the address in. Hit Enter and you're done! You have added a feed. Alternatively, you can just search for feeds. Click on "Add Subscription" and type in your search terms. Google makes it easy to add right from the results.
There are a lot things you can do with Reader once you start adding feeds, but I think the most sensible is organizing feeds into folders. It's easy. Click on any of your feeds, and then look right above where it loads. See "Feed Settings?" Click on it and you can create folders and add your feeds to them. I use four folders: Arty, Newsy Time-Wasters, Tech, and Blogging. But you can use as many as you want, and name them whatever you want.
Here are my favorite two features of reader: Items are automatically marked as read as you scroll by them, so they
drop out of the list of total unread items, and will no longer appear at the top
of each feed, and you can browse your feeds all at once, feed-by-feed or a folder at a time
Google Reader will also let use key commands to control it. I'm not going to go into it here, but Lifehacker has a great post about it.
This is a very short list of some of the sites I subscribe to:
Boing Boing
Digg
Del.icio.us
Fark
LifeHacker
What feeds do you subscribe to? Have any questions about RSS? Leave a comment below.
What RSS Means
It means Really Simple Syndication. But what it really means is that you can check out websites without having to go to them. This is particularly handy if you want to check up on some sites regularly. It can really save you a lot of time.
Where to Find Feeds
If you use Firefox as your web browser (and read this article to find out why you probably should be), then you have an easy method for looking at RSS feeds (this is not exclusive to Firefox, but it's one of the two methods I use). Look in the Address Bar. See the little orange thing?
The Firefox Method
If you click on it Firefox will show you the feed and give you the option to subscribe to it using Live Bookmarks. Click "Subscribe Now," and place the bookmark in your Bookmarks Toolbar. You now have a one click method to look at that website. Click on your live bookmark (RSS Feed). See that list of articles? Click on any of them and you will be taken to the full article. Are you starting to see how handy this can be?
My Method
I use Firefox, and have a few Live Bookmarks set up, but some of the sites I like to check daily have way too many articles to be easily dealt with. There's just no way to keep up with them, and Live Bookmarks only shows you a current list, not a total one. To avoid missing posts, I use Google Reader. If you have an account with Google already (i.e., with Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Documents and Spreadsheets, or any of the other Google services, then you already have access to Google Reader with the same username and password you already use. See other posts on this blog for more about the other Google services.
Once you are logged in to Reader you can search for RSS feeds from websites you would like to check, add them, organize them, and read them. You can Share items from your feeds on your blog, or Star them to look at again later.
Adding Feeds to Google Reader
It's easy. If you are browsing on some site, let's say it's Boing Boing (one of my favorites), and want to add their feed to Google Reader, just click on the little orange thing in the Address Bar in Firefox. When it brings up the feed page, copy the address and then go to Google Reader. Click on "Add Subscription" and paste the address in. Hit Enter and you're done! You have added a feed. Alternatively, you can just search for feeds. Click on "Add Subscription" and type in your search terms. Google makes it easy to add right from the results.
Organizing Feeds
There are a lot things you can do with Reader once you start adding feeds, but I think the most sensible is organizing feeds into folders. It's easy. Click on any of your feeds, and then look right above where it loads. See "Feed Settings?" Click on it and you can create folders and add your feeds to them. I use four folders: Arty, Newsy Time-Wasters, Tech, and Blogging. But you can use as many as you want, and name them whatever you want.
Here are my favorite two features of reader: Items are automatically marked as read as you scroll by them, so they
drop out of the list of total unread items, and will no longer appear at the top
of each feed, and you can browse your feeds all at once, feed-by-feed or a folder at a time
Google Reader will also let use key commands to control it. I'm not going to go into it here, but Lifehacker has a great post about it.
My Feeds
This is a very short list of some of the sites I subscribe to:
What feeds do you subscribe to? Have any questions about RSS? Leave a comment below.
Labels: Tutorials
This entry was posted by Power Rambling, on
Monday, February 26, 2007.
You can leave your response.
