Have you ever found that there are lots of sites that you wanted to go back to, but you couldn’t keep up?
Well, there is a solution to this problem – let the computer do the work. Rather than you having to visit all of your favourite sites to see if they’ve updated, the sites notify you when there is something new to read.
This is made possible by the use of something called an RSS feed. RSS stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication’ – you don’t need to know the technical details. All you need is a computer program called an RSS reader which you use to ’subscribe’ to RSS feeds. It won’t cost you anything.
Personally, I use an online RSS reader. I used to use bloglines, but now use Google Reader. To get an account, you will need to use their registration procedures, it’s pretty easy if you follow the instructions. If you choose Google Reader I’d get a gmail account first. You can then use the same login information for both services. If you already have an email address, supplying this will allow you to get your password back should you forget. I’ve been using gmail since it first came out, it’s very good.
You have probably seen icons like this all over the web. This is the now standard icon for an RSS feed, and it tells you that you can subscribe to that website using your feed reader.
In google reader you would click the ‘add a subscription’ button and paste in the address of the site (e.g. http://www.murky.org/blg/ ), usually google reader will automatically find the feed on the page. On occasion, this might not work and you will need to help things along a little. I so right click on the feed and choose ‘copy link address’, ‘copy shortcut’, ‘copy link location’ (or whatever it is called in your browser). Then go to ‘add a subscription’ and right-click/paste to paste in the link (or press ctrl and v together).
Sometimes a site will provide a special icon which is tied to a specific reader, clicking it will automatically subscribe to that site using that reader – but though this is convenient if you happen to use that RSS reader, it can be awkward if you don’t. For a site-designer, they can feel compelled to put lots of ‘convenient’ links on their page and it can then be hard to find the right one!
RSS Feeds
Have you ever found that there are lots of sites that you wanted to go back to, but you couldn’t keep up?
Well, there is a solution to this problem – let the computer do the work. Rather than you having to visit all of your favourite sites to see if they’ve updated, the sites notify you when there is something new to read.
This is made possible by the use of something called an RSS feed. RSS stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication’ – you don’t need to know the technical details. All you need is a computer program called an RSS reader which you use to ’subscribe’ to RSS feeds. It won’t cost you anything.
Personally, I use an online RSS reader. I used to use bloglines, but now use Google Reader. To get an account, you will need to use their registration procedures, it’s pretty easy if you follow the instructions. If you choose Google Reader I’d get a gmail account first. You can then use the same login information for both services. If you already have an email address, supplying this will allow you to get your password back should you forget. I’ve been using gmail since it first came out, it’s very good.
In google reader you would click the ‘add a subscription’ button and paste in the address of the site (e.g. http://www.murky.org/blg/ ), usually google reader will automatically find the feed on the page. On occasion, this might not work and you will need to help things along a little. I so right click on the feed and choose ‘copy link address’, ‘copy shortcut’, ‘copy link location’ (or whatever it is called in your browser). Then go to ‘add a subscription’ and right-click/paste to paste in the link (or press ctrl and v together).
For more information, here is the BBC News page explaining RSS feeds – but don’t forget to come back and subscribe to my feed!
Here is Google’s information about RSS feeds.