RSS – Your World Consolidated

RSSTechMiso has been trucking along solid for a month now since its launch January 1st, 2009. Along with a modest bump in traffic, we’re seeing solid readership and thoughtful commentary from the folks who have joined us so far.

The foreseeable future promises no let up on tech talk either. With access to mind blowing numbers of news outlets each day, the difficult [but fun] assignment of choosing topics grows exponentially. Here enters RSS-

Also known as Really Simple Syndication, RSS is by far the largest and most accepted web standard in existence that aggregates and updates data from all over the internet. RSS takes the fluff out of content and delivers – clean – cut – raw information straight to your screen.

Do you follow news via CNN, Reuters or FoxNews? Or all of them? Or maybe your news intake is satisfied by visiting just one of them. Or you have a completely different set of news portals — Slashdot, Mashable or Engadget. Whatever you use to reference your news sources, RSS will put them in a simple, scrollable and manageable stream of data.

RSS is easy to shrug off as too complicated, but that is a grave misconception. If you haven’t already tried RSS or you’ve tried and gave up on it, let me recommend one RSS tool here to put you back on track to a solid web experience: Google Reader

If you have a Gmail account, then you already have Google Reader. Log into Gmail and from the links at the top — click the one named ‘Reader.’

A few truly basic steps on how to add RSS feeds to your Google Reader:

  1. Click the ‘Add a subscription button’
  2. Type in your desired website (example: FoxNews.com)
  3. Sit back and watch the magic

In the right-hand pane of your reader, you’ll now have the absolute latest RSS news stream from FoxNews.com — without their site design and load time. But, if you feel the need to visit FoxNews directly, simply click on the headline and be whisked off to their full blown website. This is, Really Simple Syndication.

This is the power known as RSS.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/YorickPeterse YorickPeterse

    RSS feeds are awesome, but I'm still not sure which to choose, feeds using Firefox or Google Reader ?

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/jark Scott Jarkoff

    Google Reader is far easier to read feeds in and is a much more robust solution. Simple to export your subscriptions to an OPML feed, which can be imported in to just about any RSS reader. On top of that, you can do so much more with Google Reader than Firefox.

    Give it a shot and methinks you'll likey.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/YorickPeterse YorickPeterse

    Tried it and it's pretty sweet :]

  • Ryan

    Jark, what are some of your favorite feeds to follow?

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/jark Scott Jarkoff

    That's a really good question. I'll answer that in an upcoming article because it's a really good subject.

  • Ryan

    Thank you.