Many years ago I used to keep up with the latest Internet news and trends by subscribing to email newsletters and visiting blogs - one by one. I still subscribe to a dozen or so of my favorite newsletters, but the real time saver for me is subscribing to RSS news feeds from my favorite websites. I simply open my RSS Reader and it updates all the feeds I subscribed to in the background while I work. A few minutes later, all the news I ever wanted to read is right on my desktop. {sigh} Don't you just love technology?
What is RSS? RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication. To read an RSS feed, you need an RSS Reader which is similar to newsgroup software but not quite the same as it is so much better. Basically, RSS enables you to pull in (or syndicate) news summaries from your favorite web sites.
Subscribing to an RSS feed is as easy as copying the URL feed into your RSS reader. Just look for the little orange XML icon on the website you want to syndicate. If your RSS Reader is open (running in the background on your system) some advanced readers will alert you when you visit a site that has an available feed.
Then all you need do is right click on the orange XML icon and choose "Copy Shortcut". Go to your RSS reader software, create a new channel and the URL in your clipboard will be auto-pasted into the URL field.
If you don't have an RSS Reader, then there are a number of great web-based services that are free or for a small fee. Yahoo email has had their RSS service integrated with their email service for well over a year and it works just fine.
BasicTemplates.com has an RSS feed to this blog. So if you are not reading this post from your desktop with your reader, now you know that you can. And you can keep up with our blog posts without having to actually visit our blog. Your RSS reader will automatically let you know as soon as we post a blog entry or you can subscribe to be notified by email, IM, or any wireless device (like your cell phone).
You can subscribe to our blog feed using any of the feed icons and/or services listed at the top of every page in our blog.
Oh, the times are changing and it's so exciting. We have seen a tremendous increase in our RSS subscriptions (a free service, btw) just over the last six months. Now more than 4,000 readers syndicate our RSS blog feed every month and our blog has only been online for just over a year. Amazing. One day I suspect that RSS subscriptions (which again are completely free) will surpass our newsletter subscribers. I'll do the happy dance when that happens. Although I think newsletters via email are an effective communication tool, I really love my RSS and the technology that's coming due to its development which is just around the corner. More on that at another time. ;)
// posted by BasicRic on 6/20/2005 09:12:00 AM / Permanent Link 
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