What is RSS?
This article explains what RSS is, how you can benefit from it, how to set up an RSS reader and where to find RSS feeds to read.
“RSS” stands for “Really Simple Syndication”. It is not a buzzword. It is an acronym. It’s also not new. RSS syndication was first developed in 1999 (version 0.9).
To the layperson or non-technical reader, RSS allows for remote reading of articles from multiples sites (sources), via “feeds” normally aggregated in one convenient location (your RSS reader).
Why is it convenient to read site content in an RSS reader?
Good question. It’s more convenient because it saves you time and in doing so allows you to scan just the headlines of articles, reading only those which interest you. Consider for a moment that you have fifty web sites that you normally browse for news, information, tips and just to stay on top of changes in your industry, job or personal interests.
Option A:
- Bookmark all fifty sites in your browser
- Remember to visit each site in the list daily to check for new articles or content
- When you visit each site, click around to read the articles
- Lather, rinse and repeat daily - very time consuming
Option B:
- Visit the sites you go to for information ONCE
- Identify and add the sites’ RSS feeds to your RSS reader
- Visit your RSS reader daily and have content served to you
- Scan and read only new articles posted to the sites you like
- Instead of you visiting fifty sites each day, the sites visit you
What is an “RSS feed”?
An RSS feed is a content stream, in the form of a web address (URL) that, when “subscribed” to in your RSS reader, will cause new content from that site to appear in your reader. RSS feeds are normally identified by an icon (orange square with white markings) or sometimes just a link. Some sites (blogs for the most part) have just one RSS feed that they offer. Others offer the option of picking up an RSS feed for the site’s articles and a second feed if you’d like to read comments about those articles. Still other sites like CNN.com and NYTimes.com may offer ten or more RSS feeds, allowing you to “subscribe” to sections of their site, news categories or topics of interest.
Can’t I just subscribe to a site’s email newsletter?
Yes, you can. But there is a fundamental difference between how email is processed and read and how RSS content is read, making RSS a clear winner over email. RSS is simple, focused and uncluttered. Pure content.
Email
- Newsletters appear in a giant mix of often hundreds (or thousands) of messages that are sitting in your cluttered Inbox.
- Newsletters are not segregated by topic in your Inbox. They come in as they arrive, before or after many other things that you must deal with.
- Email messages and newsletters are mixed together, thus forcing many distractions and less focus.
RSS
- Only content, no messages to reply to or take action on.
- One-way only, inbound to you.
- Easily segregated and organized by topic folders.
- If you want to spend 15 minutes learning about Personal Finance, it’s easy to do with no distractions by just clicking on your Personal Finance folder and focusing on that topic.
- “Scanning” headlines is much easier than trying to figure out the subject lines of email newsletters to gauge whether you’re interested in reading further or not.
What do I need in order to read an RSS feed?
You need an RSS reader. There are software programs you can buy or download and install, but generally one of the best RSS readers is free. All you need to access it is your web browser and a Google Account. If you haven’t set up a Google Reader account already, click here to set up a Google Account. Use ‘Jane.Doe@gmail.com’ or whatever is not already taken.
Once you have a Google Account created, click here to access the Google Reader. You’ll probably want to bookmark it so you can use it easily and regularly.
How to add your first RSS feed
For the purpose of just getting started, we’re going to add the RSS feed from a site called LifeHacker. It’s a pretty good site with lots of useful tips on improving your life if you work in the tech industry or online. So visit the site and just above the search box you’ll see a small link that says RSS. This site is probably not the best example to use. Normally a site’s RSS feed is much more obvious, with an icon or RSS logo link. But this is a pretty good feed to start with so we’ll use it.
Right-click on the link, or if you’re on a Mac, CTRL-click, and copy the link.
Now to to your Google Reader account. Sign into the account and on the left side you’ll see a link that says “Add subscription”. Click that link and then use CTRL-V or CMD-V (Mac) to paste the RSS feed URL from Lifehacker into the subscription box and click “Add”.
That’s it. Wasn’t too hard was it? You’ve just subscribed to your first RSS feed.
Yes, but how do I read it and do I need to do anything?
To read any of your feeds, all you’ll need to do is click the name of the feed in the left side. When you do, the right side will populate with new “posts” from that feed. To “read the feed”, just scroll down the browser window. Alternatively, you can use a keyboard shortcut of “J” for next post or “K” for back, to move quickly down the posts as you scan them. When you’ve reached the last unread post, click the button that says “Mark all as read”. This tells the reader not to display these posts again to you when you login tomorrow. You will only see posts if there has been new content or articles posted since your last visit.
Staying Organized
When people first discover RSS, how easy it is to use, and how much of a timesaver it is, their first tendency is to add hundreds of feeds to their reader. Keep in mind that the time savings you realize by using RSS is negated if you exponentially increase the number of sites that you read each day. Undoubtedly you’ll want to explore a number of different feeds and at some point will realize that you have too many and then you’ll start paring back to just the ones that are the most important to you. We all do it. It’s easy to drown when you’re trying to drink from a fire hose. Just realize that if it gets to be too much that this is a self-created problem. You can always unsubscribe from a feed.
After adding more than a handful of feeds, you’ll quickly want to learn how to create Topic Folders in the Google Reader for groups of feeds like “Personal Finance”, “Job Search”, “News” and whatever else floats your boat.
To create a new folder for a group of feeds, in Google Reader click the link at the bottom of the screen that says “Manage Subscriptions”. On this page you’ll see a list of all the feeds you’re subscribed to. To the right of each feed is a drop-down menu that says “Change Folders”. Click that and choose “New Folder” to create a new folder or select an existing name to move a feed from one folder to another. Grouping your feed helps to stay organized. You may want to create folders like “Must Read”, “When I have time”, “Job Search”, “Personal Finance” and others.
Drinking from the Fire Hose
There is an inherent temptation when one first starts using RSS to add or subscribe to tens if not hundreds of feeds. This is a great way to see what’s out there that you may be interested in, so long as you pare your list down later to only those that truly interest and benefit your life or the work you do for your company/employer. Information overload is commonplace now, but it is possible to learn how to quickly monitor and scan hundreds of RSS feeds to stay current on industry trends, useful articles and more. It is, however, more of an art than a science.
Here’s how IT Bloggeratti Robert Scoble monitors over six hundred RSS feeds daily.
Where can I find more RSS feeds to add?
A post from Keith Ferrazzi’s blog and book by the same name about the power of networking and relationships, “Never Eat Alone”. Pick up the feed at http://nevereatalone.typepad.com/blog/
In general, just look at the sites you visit most often. Especially if they are blogs, chances are, they will offer one or more RSS feeds of their site content. The RSS link is usually a graphical logo or a text link found at the top right of the home page, in the side column or at the very bottom of the page. If you’re looking for specific topics of interest, you might try using Google to find sites that you like and then looking in the footer of the site to see if they offer an RSS feed as indicated by an RSS icon link or text link.
An additional place to look for RSS feeds is: Google Blog Search
Using Tabbed Browsing
Most major browsers now have the feature of tabbed browsing. Use CTRL-T or CMD-T (on a Mac) to have Google Reader open in one tabbed window of the browser and use the other one to locate RSS feeds or visit sites.
An interesting use of RSS
Craigslist has a built-in feature that allows you to either monitor categories as RSS feeds or to create a custom search phrase and monitor it as an RSS feed. For example, say you wanted to monitor new listings for Advertising jobs in Portland, Oregon. You could visit http://portland.craigslist.org/ and click on Jobs > Marketing / PR / Ad. On that page is a listing of jobs in Portland in Marketing, PR and Advertising. At the bottom of the page, in the right corner is an RSS logo graphic with link. Copy that link and add it as a new subscription to Google Reader and every new listing added to that section of Craigslist will be pushed to your RSS reader. No more remembering to check Craiglist for jobs every few days. EVERY new job listing will be waiting for you when you next login to your RSS reader.
Or you could create a custom search in Craigslist to monitor for a specific item.
Say you’re looking for a used iPhone in Portland, Oregon, and rather than search for it daily you’d like to be receive all new listings that have the keyword “iPhone” in them. You go to Craigslist Portland and in the Search Craigslist box on the left side, enter “iPhone”. Select “For Sale” in the dropdown menu and click Search.
This displays a page with all For Sale listings that have “iPhone” in them. At the bottom of the page, in the right corner is an RSS link that, when added as a feed to Google Reader, will send all existing and all future listings for iPhones to your RSS reader.
Tips on reading feeds in Google Reader
- When reading a feed, rather than scrolling down with your mouse to the next post, try using just the J and K keys on your keyboard to move forward and backward to the next or previous posts.
- If you see a post you’d like to read later on, at the bottom of the post, click “Add Star” to turn on the yellow star. Later on, to view all the posts you’ve starred, just click the “Starred Items” link at the top left of Google Reader.
- See a post from a feed that you’d like to share with a friend? At the bottom of the post, just click “Email” to send a link to the post to your friend by email.
- Want to make sure you’re reading the very latest posts in your feeds? Just click the “Refresh” button to the right of your feed links.
- In the upper right of Google Reader you’ll see two tabs: Expanded View and List View. In Expanded View, you’ll be able to read full articles right in your reader without having to visit any other site. In List View, you’ll see only the article headline. List View is easier for scanning headlines quickly and processing many postings. I normally leave mine on Expanded View and use J and K to move quickly through the postings, stopping on ones I am interested in.
I hope you found this useful! If yes, share the web address with everyone in your office and your friends who could benefit.
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Feedback/Questions/Additions/Corrections?
Reach the author at adam (at) adamboettiger.com or provide your feedback by voicemail at (503) 946-6450.
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