Chuck The Geek.com

Have web news delivered to you the way you want - Introduction to RSS

January 27th, 2006 by Chuck Sharp

RSS is a fantastic technology for getting news, blog articles, and just about any other kind of information to you simply and effectively. In this introduction to RSS, I hope to show how RSS can help you get more out of the Internet by exposing more information that’s more relevant to you in a useful way.

What is RSS?

Depending on who you ask, RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication,” “Rich Site Summary,” or something else. Whatever the meaning of the week is, RSS is a power full way of making lists of data that can be easily retrieved from the Internet and understood by computer programs. These lists are called feeds. A feed can contain lists of news headlines, the latest postings on a blog, the current and forecast weather, comics, and any number of other things.

Just to get a few terms out of the way, an RSS feed is created in an XML format, which is a simple, standard way to describe data in a way that other computers and programs can understand. The only reason to know that is because RSS feeds are often called XML feeds. Same thing, most of the time. Another term is ATOM, which is an alternative to RSS, but they both work the same. The next term to know is aggregator. An RSS aggregator is a program of some kind that knows how to download RSS feeds and display them in a useful way to you. More on that shortly. The last term to know is subscribing to a feed. This means using some aggregator to automatically track a RSS feed for changes and display the resulting items for you.

An example of a feed

Here is a simple example of what RSS feeds can provide.

RSS aggregators

As mentioned, RSS aggregators are programs (there are also aggregator websites) that monitor and display RSS feeds for you. An aggregator does several things:

• It manages the RSS feeds you want to monitor by subscribing to the feeds. You can track just the news, weather, etc. that you want, and only those.
• It presents the items in each feed in an easy to browse format, much like browsing your email by subject in Outlook or Thunderbird.
• It lets you view at least some of the content for that item. For instance, the CNN feeds give you a story title, but if you click on the title, you can read the summary and then use the link to go to the full story.
• It downloads (pulls) your RSS feeds automatically at preset intervals, like 30 minutes or 2 hours or twice a day. This keeps your feeds current, so you can just glance to see if any new items are in. Some aggregators even notify you when new items are present.

Why is RSS useful?

This is question I asked at first: why not just go to a website and see the news headlines/comics/articles/etc there? Why use another program to do this? The big idea is that aggregators are a way to collect information in one place, in one format, automatically, and show you what’s new quickly. It’s like having a personal assistant who’s job it is to look at all the information sites you want to keep track of and collect all the headlines and snippets into one place for your immediate and quick perusal.

Why not just use email subscriptions?

In the past, email has been the tool to accomplish this. You subscribe to some site’s email service that sends you daily or weekly newsletter of new stuff. RSS is better at this for a number of reasons.

First, RSS is pull technology (you go get it), and email is push technology (they send it to you). This is a control issue. When I use RSS, I get updated RSS feeds on my schedule. I can also subscribe or unsubscribe simply and completely to an RSS feed, because the producer of the feed doesn’t need to know I’m subscribing or unsubscribing. Remember, a subscription is just telling your aggregator to download the latest feed every so often. No email addresses, no security issues.

Second, RSS gives you just the info you need in the simplest, most efficient way. Here’s an example: you look at your list of feeds, and the see that the CNN feed (to use that guy again) has 3 new stories. So, you click on that feed, and see the headlines listed, one per line. No ads, no funny fonts or colors, just the headlines. You click on the one that interests you, and you read a nice, simply formatted article summary. Done in two mouse clicks with very little detracting fluff.

Honestly though, you have to try RSS aggregation to become a believer. So, let’s get down to brass tacks (I’ve always wanted to say that).

Getting an Aggregator

If you use the Thunderbird email program (and you should, so get it now if you don’t), you already have an aggregator. That’s what I’ll be talking about here. If you want to try a web-based aggregator, try Google Reader. Another free windows RSS aggregator is SharpReader.

Subscribe to your first feed

We’re going to subscribe to the Diggdot.us feed. Quick note on diggdot.us: digg.com, slashdot.com, and del.icio.us are sites that employ forms of “social bookmarking,” which means that the Internet community (ok, mostly geeky types) decides as a whole what’s noteworthy, and then list that content for the world to see. Diggdot.us takes the links and sites listed on all three sites and combines them into one giant listing of the most popular and interesting stuff on the web. It’s kind of the pulse of the web.

Anywho, open up Thunderbird, and on the left side of screen where your email accounts are listed, you’ll see ‘RSS’ listed at the bottom (if you don’t see it, then re-install Thunderbird and make sure you install with RSS support). Right click on the RSS, and choose Manage Subscriptions. Click the “Add” Button, and then type in “http://diggdot.us/rss” without the quotes, and click OK. When you close the Manage Subscription window, You’ll see the diggdot.us feed listed under the RSS line. Click on it. You’ll see the last several items listed. See you in a few weeks.

Where to find good feeds

First, go through your email subscriptions and favorite websites. Go to the sites, and look for little buttons similar to one of these:

When you see those, click on them. You should see a weird page come up with odd text on it. That’s the feed! Select and copy the web address for the feed (it’s in the text box at the top of the browser.) Go to Thunderbird, RSS, Manage Subscriptions, Add, and then paste the text in there by right-clicking on the text box and clicking on ‘Paste’. Click Ok, then close the Manage Subscriptions window. You’ve just subscribed to that feed.

Next, go visit the RSS directories, listed below. Those will give you thousands of available feeds for subscription.

• Syndic8 - The most well known directory of feeds
• NewsIsFree - Good directory and online aggregator
• Technorati - Huge listing of blogs and blog posts by category

My favorite RSS feeds

• ChuckTheGeek.com - Of course, I had to list my own blog feed.
• Cool Tools - A blog about neat tools, products, websites, and books that aren’t run of the mill but have a Wow factor.
• Diggdot.us - Just a great source of information. This is really useful for keeping up with (mostly geek-related) news.
• Lifehack - The latest articles and websites related to productivity, effectiveness, health, career, and all kinds of better-living type stuff.
• Google News - Google
  takes news from hundreds of news sites and combines it into one location, categorized.
• Lockergnome’s Windows Fanatics - These guys are kings among geeks.
• Yahoo Weather - Go here, find your city, and use the RSS button to get the feed.
• Steve Pavlina’s Personal Development Blog - Just some fantastic articles on goals, time management, and other personal development stuff.

Technorati Tags: RSS, introduction to RSS, Internet, Really Simple Syndication, Rich Site Summary, XML, RSS feeds, ATOM, aggregator, RSS aggregator, Thunderbird, Google Reader, SharpReader

Entry Filed under: PC Basics, Productivity, Review