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February 07, 2006
RSS - What is it and why do I need it?
A friend recently asked if I could explain RSS (Really Simple Syndication) in a non-technical way as a blog entry. Apparently, he had heard that it was useful but didn't really know all the details. So Chris, as well as others who come to this site but rarely understand what I am talking about, this is for you:
I read a lot of websites that are updated frequently as well as some that are rarely updated at all. These sites include blogs, news, photo galleries, technology tutorials, etc. Right now, I would estimate the number of sites that I frequent to be around 30. Think that's a lot? Once you download an RSS Reader, your list will quickly increase.
Some sites, like Digg, are updated continuously through the day. Others, like Wall Street Programmer are only updated once every few weeks, but I still would like to know when. That is why there is RSS.
Before RSS, I would have had 30 different browser bookmarks. Then, several times throughout the day I would have to check each bookmark to see if there was any new content. On most sites, there would be nothing new, but I would still have to take the time to check. That would have been very time-consuming.
Fortunately, all 30 of the websites I frequent also offer an RSS Feed. This means that I can add all 30 feeds to my favorite RSS Aggregator and with a click of a button can find out which sites have new content and which do not.
In other words, by clicking a single button, my RSS reader will check all 30 sites, one after another and alert me if there is a new news story, blog entry, photo, etc. in any of them. So instead of taking 10 minutes to check for new content on 30 websites, I can take 10 seconds, which gives me much more time to write blog entries which people besides myself might read.
If you have your own blog, you more than likely already have an RSS feed that is automatically updated every time you add an entry. This is true for LiveJournal, Blogger, WordPress, MovableType, etc.
I recommend you that you check your favorite websites for RSS Feeds. They may be labeled as XML, Syndicate This Site, RSS, Live Feed, etc. Then, download an RSS Reader like Sage or SharpReader and see how much time it saves you.
If you have any questions, post a comment and I will post a response.
Posted by Chuck at February 7, 2006 03:03 PM
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Comments
Thank you! I want to try this out.
Posted by: Chris at February 7, 2006 04:55 PM
I really like Sage. It integrates with Firefox and allows the user to customize the RSS views by editing the RSS CSS file.
Posted by: Justin at February 8, 2006 10:28 AM