Most people who drive cars haven’t a clue how a car works. They don’t know where the fuel goes when they start the car, or how the wheels are powered to turn the way they do. Similarly, most people who use the Internet, have no idea how it works, how sites are built, run, maintained, etc.
I can imagine the first time remote central locking was introduced to cars that some people may have asked, why we would need such a thing. After all, if we’re opening the car then we’re going to be getting into it in most cases, so why not just stick the key in the lock when you reach the car? Ok, so we don’t need it, but it shaves about 3 seconds off the time it takes to enter and exit the car, and we’ll need all those precious seconds to put together time to go and get another battery every-so-often. But in all seriousness, remote central locking is a little luxury that we could all live without, but we appreciate it when we have it.
Likewise, RSS Feeds and Email Subscriptions are things we don’t really need, but they tend to make life easier, and allow us to get through more of our favourite websites faster and I’m going to try and remove the jargon, and explain what it’s all about, how it works and how you can use it.
What is RSS?
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. It is a content format which, when used with an RSS ‘aggregator’ or ‘feed reader’, lets users know whenever anything on a specific website is updated with new content. RSS Feeds are commonly used on blogs (like this one), news websites and other sites which are updated on a regular basis.
RSS Feeds are often indicated by links that say ‘RSS’ or a square orange button with the text ‘XML’ or ‘RSS’ within it. More often now though, you’ll just see an orange icon like this -
Sometimes the icon can be simple, other times it’s a cool 3d image (see the top of my sidebar). To subscribe, you click on the text/icon.
What Does An Aggregator (Feed Reader) Do?
Rather than you having to visit all your favourite websites, you use an aggregator (feed reader) and it brings all the new content of your favourite websites to you every time a specified page is updated. It allows the you to view all the new content in one location. As Google put it, it’s a bit like your email inbox. You don’t have to click on my name in your email address book to see if I’ve sent you an email, if I send you an email it’ll appear in your inbox. Likewise, you don’t have to visit all your websites to see if there is something new, it will appear in your aggregator/reader.
What Aggregator (Feed Reader) Should I Use?
I must be honest, I’m in the same boat as you if you’re not sure what to use. For some time now I’ve just been using my browser, IE7, to read my subscribed RSS Feeds. However, I have recently been introduced to Google Reader and I’m giving it a go. It seems to be as good as any, and they have an introductory video that explains why you should use a feed reader like Google Reader. There are others though, such as Bloglines, Feedreader, NetNewsWire (for mac) and Newsgator, among many others.
Email Subscription
Maybe you don’t visit many websites? Sometimes a little reminder to visit your favourite website would be best popping up in your email inbox. If this is the case, then on some websites (like this one) you can subscribe to be emailed the updates to remind you to read and visit it.
Sometimes there are fortnightly/monthly newletters offered by websites. These are emails that notify you of all the best content that has been produced on the website over a particular period of time. I have thought about introducing this here also, but the problem with it is that content can become out-of-date before people read it.
Conclusion
I freely admit this is all new to me also, so some of the more ‘web savvy’ of my readers may be able to add more to this, or correct me where I’m wrong.
Managing your time is something many of us need to work on. One way to be more productive on the Internet is to use a feed reader. So get with it my readers, set up your Google Reader and subscribe to this blog.
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