confused by all of this talk of RSS, RSS feeds, aggregators and readers, and are
having trouble wrapping your brain around it, here’s a really simple explanation
of Really Simple Syndication (RSS) and how to use it. A word of caution, once
learning how to receive the feeds on your favorite subjects, you may soon be
annoying your friends with all of your infinite wisdom on everything. You have
been warned.

What is RSS?

RSS is a
notification system used to alert subscribers to changes made to their favorite
web sites, blogs, music sites, etc. The favorite site must offer this free
service in order for people to add it to their lists. It is easy to discern that
the site is RSS-enabled because of the orange rectangular button that is labeled
with either RSS or XML somewhere on the page.

An RSS
feed is a text-based headline with a link, and usually a short summary, that is
shot over to you as soon as it leaves your favorite news site’s clutches. If
you’re interested in reading the whole article, just click on the RSS feed link,
and you will be directed to the full article, simply and efficiently. Think of a
feed as being pulled and delivered to you, as opposed to you reaching out to
find it.

How Do I Read the
Feed?

You may
have noticed that when you try to click on one of the orange, rectangular
buttons, you just get a squirrelly looking page of code. RSS is written in XML
(Extensible Markup Language), similar to html. That’s all fine and good, but why
can’t Johnny read the feed? Well, that’s because he needs an RSS feed reader to
make it work. Some readers automatically take you to the full article, while
with others, you must use their application’s RSS button. More on that in a
minute.

Feed Reader
Choices

A feed
reader, or aggregator, is an application that runs in the background, always
searching for updates, never sleeping. Currently, there are three types of
readers - standalone, add-ons and built-in web feed readers.

A
standalone reader is just that. It stands alone and processes your feeds for
you. It is your news hunter and gatherer. A standalone application, such as
FeedDemon, is customizable for your specific needs and hasn’t already been
polluted with links set up by someone else. You also have the ability to access
your feeds while offline. The drawback here, is that it is yet another program
that you have to open on your desktop.

Add-on
readers, such as Pluck, plug right in and extend the functionality of existing
programs, such as Internet Explorer and Outlook. Most add-ons working within
Explorer enable you to set up your channels with a headline display area for
easier viewing. Programs compatible with Outlook enable you to set up folders
within Outlook. To read the full text of an article, click on the headline and
Explorer brings it up. The upside, is that most likely, you already have Outlook
or Explorer open all the time. The downside, is that if you have many folders in
Outlook already or 632 bookmarks in Explorer, it may be a little more difficult
to find your feeds fast.

Web-based feed readers are built right into a browser, requiring no
special software installation. The Mozilla Firefox browser, for example,
automatically enables you to add RSS feeds to your Favorites folder creating
“Live Bookmarks”. Apple Computer added RSS support in the version of Safari
bundled with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. Microsoft also has RSS support in the works
for IE7 for Windows XP.

Set-Up

Once you
get your standalone or add-on reader installed, you’re ready to start adding
sites/blogs/music updates to your subscription list. Standalone readers, when
launched, typically contain a toolbar and two or three window panels. You can
organize your RSS feeds in the left panel with folders or categories. The other
windows display channel information, title of the feed and the URL to the
complete text of the article. You can change channel groups easily by clicking
on the drop-down box beneath the menus.

Add-on
readers utilize your existing program’s capabilities. For example, readers
working within Outlook make it easy to organize your feeds with a folder system
that is familiar to you.

Many
readers, as previously mentioned, already include preloaded channels “for your
convenience”. Some are good, some are not so good, but you will definitely want
to customize yours to suit your needs. Think of it as your own, customized daily
newspaper, but without the paper and more often.

Programs, like Pluck, enable you to click on the orange rectangular
button directly on the website to which you would like to subscribe. A dialog
box should mention that you are about to subscribe. Others, such as Mozilla
Firefox, have a small, red RSS on the program’s frame itself, such as in the
lower right corner. If you get the squirrelly XML code page, try looking around
for your program’s RSS button. You should get a subscription dialog box here as
well. If none of this works for you, give the following a try. Copy the URL from
the address bar, go back to your reader and select where you want to put that
particular subject (Sports, Music, Anime). Next, select New or New Channel from
the File menu. The program’s wizard should copy the URL automatically, but if it
doesn’t, just paste it in there, since you were smart and copied it just in
case.

Depending on the type of reader you use (and what type of news hound you
happen to be) you can either be automatically alerted each time updates come in
from your favorites, or you can wait and simply go to your grand list of updates
to review at your leisure.

Why Don’t All News Services
Offer RSS Feeds?

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