Week 4 - RSS

It's been a little while since I've last posted and I must admit that I still haven't uploaded my photos onto Flickr (the Adventure part of Week 3) - they are on my USB which is currently at work but I will upload my photos and submit an additional Week 3 post once I have done that.

I've been learning more about RSS - I have heard about RSS previously and have seen the commonly-used icon on many websites. I'm patiently waiting for the YouTube RSS in Plain English to finish loading fully so that I can watch it in one sitting rather than catching glimpses of 2 seconds here and there - the several interrupted seconds I have seen however appear to be extremely useful in learning more about RSS - oh the joys of dial-up!!!

Additionally, I did find the explanation from Wikipedia helpful too - so much so that I will quote a little from it "...RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content including, but not limited to, blog entries, news headlines, and podcasts...An RSS document (which is called a "feed" or "web feed" or "channel") contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with their favorite web sites in an automated manner that can be piped into special programs or filtered displays.

RSS content can be read using software called an "RSS reader", "feed reader" or an "aggregator". The user subscribes to a feed by entering the feed's link into the reader or by clicking an RSS icon in a browser that initiates the subscription process. The reader checks the user's subscribed feeds regularly for new content, downloading any updates that it finds..."
Wikipedia entry for RSS

YouTube video: RSS in Plain English
RSS in Plain English

This informative video did explain succinctly what RSS is and the benefits of RSS in an upbeat manner - basically there are 2 things a user must do:
1. Sign up for a reader eg GoogleReader (www.google.com/reader) - this will enable you to list all of your favourite news sites and blogs - these will display on the left hand side panel and on the right hand panel, you will be able to scroll through all the new posts - thus all the NEW information from YOUR favourite sites are in the ONE place!
2. Set up the connection between YOUR reader and YOUR favourite sites ie Subscribe. To subscribe, you will need to click on the RSS icon - the most common is the orange/white icon; however, there may be other icons such as an orange RSS or XML rectangle; + Add to Google; + My Yahoo!; + Newsgator; Sub Bloglines etc. Once you find one of these icons, click on it and you'll then be able to subscribe. You will either get a page with one-click access with the icons, or the page will display code. If the page displays code, copy and paste the URL into your reader using the Add Subscription or Add Feed button - click on the Add link and then paste the URL into your reader - TaDa!!!

The benefits of using a reader? You will be informed of any updates on your favourite sites rather than you having to visit your favourite sites to check whether there has been an update - all this saves you TIME! As with most things, you need to invest time to save time further down the track as you'll need to set up your reader - but the benefits would have to make it worthwhile!!!

Now I shall discover Bloglines!