follow me @ What are RSS?
RSS are commonly referred as “Really Simple Syndication” or “Rich Site Summary”. If you don’t like the word Syndication, well the second definition gives you a better idea of its functionality. Basically, RSS is just another way of getting the same information from a website in a different format, hence, the term SUMMARY.
Let’s try to make it clear, RSS are EXACTLY the same information that you would find on a particular website but instead of YOU going to the website each time you want to “check” if the website as been updated, the website will actually “notify” you (a web feed) when new content as been posted.
Pretty cool, so now let’s try to see what this means. It means that you don’t have to run around your favorite site or check them constantly to see if something as been updated since you could register to their RSS and get AUTOMATIC NOTIFICATION when there is a certain update that you want to keep track of. Basically, you are creating your own “personal newspaper” from FEED (RSS subscription) that comes from different source but instead of going to all of these sources to get your information, they come to YOU.
So WHAT do you need to get started? Well, the first thing about your own “personal newspaper”, you need a place that will gather all those feeds (RSS). Google has one called “Google Reader”, so make a search about it or any RSS reader that you can find, there are plenty of them, and you will then have a “place” to gather all those feed that you want to keep track of.
HOW does it work? The RSS Reader is simply an application that will take all of your RSS feed and make them available for you to read without leaving the “reader”. So, once you have chosen your reader, go to your favorite websites and look for the RSS logo and when you click on it you will then have to COPY the link to bring it back into the Reader as an ADDED subscription.
It may sounds a bit confusing but once you do it once, you will find that it is pretty simple. It’s just like emails, the Reader is a web application just like your web email account and if you use gmail, you simply use your same login for Google Reader – so you already have a RSS Reader without knowing it. Inside your email account you can see if you have new mail, well inside the Reader you will see if you have updated “news” that you didn’t read yet. When you want to ADD a new friend in your emails, you simply ADD their email addresses in your contacts. Well, with RSS you simple ADD “links” in your “subscriptions” instead of contacts. After you are subscribed to a particular RSS you will get automatically notified of any new information about that particular feed.
You will notice that I said “particular feed” because now that you know HOW to get your reader and go look for RSS feed that you are interested in, you will find that you can go to a sport network, for example, and ONLY subscribe for a RSS of your favorite team. So instead of subscribing for the entire website, try to look for exactly what you are interested in and only subscribe to that particular RSS.
Well this was just a quick introduction to RSS but I hope that you have a better idea HOW RSS works and WHAT they can do for you. It’s your personal newspaper that you can personalize like whatever you want. So go out there and get your reader then simply find some RSS to subscribe to.
You will also find a RSS icon on the top right of this page, you can try it without the Reader since it will bring you to another page that will give you a choice of readers to subscribe from … ENJOY!
Knowledge is key to your success
Ghislain Bryar
December 10th, 2009 at 11:30 am
Nice! J’étais pas certain des RSS. Maintenant, j’en connais beaucoup plus!
Wow. L’invité spécial a fait éclater mes cellules gliales, c’était vraiment une bonne convention !
Anaheim était vraiment intéressant! Toute une expérience
Take care Ghislain, pis prend soin d’ton p’ti!