Charles’ 
Help with RSS “feeds”
- What is RSS?
- How do I start using RSS feeds? (and what exactly is a News Reader?)
- How do I subscribe to the Charles Phoenix feed?
- Is RSS the same as “Live Bookmarks”?
- What is RSS?
- I’m intrigued, where can I read more about RSS and Feeds?
What is RSS?
It’s easiest to explain RSS in the context of a problem:
Problem: there’s one of you. There are billions and billions of web pages. And every day – well, guess what? Someone is adding another web page even as you read this.
How can you keep up, assuming that you’d want to?
Enter RSS.
Wouldn’t it be cool if the latest news, essays, and articles were delivered directly to you, rather than you needing to click from site to site? Well now you can have the latest items from many of your favorite websites delivered to you without your so much as lifting a finger, thanks to a very clever service called RSS.
The “RSS” acronym stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication’ (OK, to be fair there is some debate among gear-heads about what, exactly, RSS’s initials mean, some preferring “Rich Site Summary”, but to you and me it doesn’t matter so long as it works).
Put plainly, RSS allows you to choose the “content” you like and have it delivered directly to you, taking the hassles out of staying up-to-date by delivering to you the very latest information from sites of interest to you.
One analogy is that RSS is like receiving a customized news feed; a personalized AP or Reuters wire service. Thus “feed” is a term frequently bandied about when discussing RSS.
Now, you need to understand that what you get with RSS depends upon the “News Reader” you use (more on this in a moment). Some just show the headline and when it was published. Others include a brief summary as well.
Not all websites currently provide RSS, but it is growing rapidly in popularity and most blogs and news sites do offer “feeds”.
How do I start using RSS feeds?
(and what’s a Feed Reader?)
Mac OS X
Web
Firefox
There are two options for reading RSS feeds: installing a piece of software on your computer or using an online (sometimes called “web-based”) reader service.
So which is better?
Well, if you already have a Yahoo, MSN, or Google email account or personalized home page then you already have an online reader. Yep, these popular services offer newsreaders that allow you to add your favorite RSS feeds to your personalized home page painlessly.
(We’ve even added special buttons that allow you to add my Slide of the Week RSS feed with just a single button click. See below.)
If you’d prefer a stand-alone, non-web-based application we’ve listed a few here, too. This list is by no means an exhaustive one of all of the readers out there. Not even close. There are dozens and dozens and since I don’t use any of them please don’t ask me my opinion, because then I’d need to make up one.
If you’re a Firefox (my fave web browser) user there’s a news reader plugin available. Internet Explorer users …wait and see.
Personally, most of the people I know prefer online readers. Why?
- A web-based service means your favorite feeds will remain available when you change computers
- Search engines (will) provide tools to organize feeds by topic and relevance rather than by site and date
How do I subscribe to the Charles Phoenix feed?
Log into MyMSN, MyYahoo!, Google Reader or Bloglines and click the relevant button (on the right).
You should see “Charles Phoenix” syndication added to your reader.
If you use a standalone application you’ll need to check the documentation on how to add feeds.
What are XML and Atom?
RSS (Really Simple Syndication, remember) and Atom are two different (and competing) ways of doing the same thing. They both use XML (eXtended Markup Language) formated “messages” to deliver the latest news from a given feed (web site) to a reader.
Is RSS the same as “Live Bookmarks”?
Yes, RSS powers Firefox’s “Live Bookmark” feature. If you’re using Firefox and you wish to add my site as a Live Bookmark just click on that orange, atomic-radiation-radio-signal RSS button (
) in the address bar of your browser (or down in the bottom right corner if you’re running a pre-1.5-version of Firefox).
Once you’ve done this, and assuming you’ve enabled the “Bookmarks Toolbar” you’ll get a nifty drop-down list with the titles of all your RSS web feed “headlines” (see picture at right).
If you need more info try these:
Firefox Bookmarks Tutorial by Gunnar Jurdzik
Live Bookmarks on Mozilla/Firefox web site
RSS versus Email Newsletters
You might wonder how RSS differs from an email newsletter. I subscribe to several newsletters and love ‘em. Heck, I have several thousand people that subscribe to the Slide of the Week mailing list I run. That said there are some reasons why RSS is a worthy alternative:
- For one, I don’t necessarily want to give out my email address to everyone.
- Another point I’m sure you can relate with is that my inbox runneth over on some days.
- From a techie standpoint all of the spam and the subsequent filters my mail provider uses to head-off spam mean that sometimes I don’t receive newsletters I actually do want (and I still get spam!).
- I know that when I “opt in” (subscribe to) or “opt out” (unsubscribe from) an RSS feed that I won’t need to wonder whether they got the message nor am I forced to wait 3 to 6 weeks for my “request” to take effect like some email lists. It’s instantaneous because I’m in control.
- RSS is displayed in my reader; I control how it’s organized and displayed. Plus, no ads. That’s really cool.
Finally, once you have everything configured on your computer its incredibly easy to add a site’s feed to my reader, much faster than signing-up for umpteen-gazillion email newsletters.
The downside of RSS seems to be that I do need to check my feeds separate from my email, yet another thing to do (though some email programs include a reader and if I don’t check the feeds they’ll be there when I eventually do). Also, the layout may not be as sexy as what I get with some newsletters. (Have you seen how cool mine is?)
The long-and-short of it is that RSS and email newsletters both have their own advantages, and there’s nothing to prevent one from sampling from both to see which one you prefer.
I’m Intrigued, Where Can I Read More About RSS and Feeds?
I’ll post more links to helpful articles as I find them, but to get started here are a couple of good primers:
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