New! RSS Feeds Explained

Of course you’ve noticed those small orange ‘XML’ or ‘RSS’ buttons popping up all over the web.

Perhaps you have clicked one out of curiosity, only to find either a list of links topped by a drop-down menu, or — even odder — a curious jumble of strange-looking code with lots of X’s. That’s an RSS feed!

Now, believe it or not, RSS is here to help you. Let’s say you have a site that you like to keep tabs on, but they don’t update daily and you’re not about to build into your schedule to pop over to the site regularly, checking for new content. So, subscribe to their RSS Feed. It makes it possible for new content to be delivered right to your door.

How, you say? On a silver platter? By Fedex? Nope. Any new content on those sites will appear in your “RSS Reader.” What’s that? You don’t have an “RSS Reader? Well, go get one. Buy it, or — my personal favorite — use the new free Google Reader. Ah, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s begin at the beginning:

????????Two Easy Steps to Subscribing to an RSS Feed:

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You’ll need to get yourself an RSS Reader, sometimes called an RSS Aggregator. (Not aggravator, though it can be that, too.) I recommend the brand-new (Spring 2007) free Google Reader. You’ll need to set up a free account with Google, if you don’t already have one. If you plan on checking the RSS Reader often, bookmark it in your browser toolbar. (Click on the Google Reader page and drag up to the bar.)

Want to buy a fancier Reader? Here are two options: Feeddemon or Newsgator (integrates with Microsoft Outlook).

Step 2:

With your Reader set up, you need to find a feed to add. How about the one to this blog? I update fairly often — sort of. See my big orange RSS feed icon in the upper right? How can you miss it? Click on it.

Now, what you see next depends on your browser. If you have Firefox, as do about a third of the computer-viewing population, you will see my feed nicely styled into a list of links with a drop down menu presenting you a choice of RSS Readers. Click on yours (possibly Google Reader?) and you’ll be taken to the Reader’s control panel where you should see “Bethesda Web Designer” titles and links listed on your left. If I’ve written any posts since the last time you looked, they will be presented on the right, under “New”.

Now, if you are among those with Internet Explorer (as do the majority of those who travel the web), you see — not that nicely styled feed — but a page full of that very strange code. That’s the RSS feed written in XML. The good news is, you can ignore the code. You only need to concern yourself with the web address (url) of the feed. Copy it down, or just right click, select all, and copy.

Now call up your trusty new Reader control panel yourself and paste that new feed url into the place for adding a new feed. Sometimes it’s called “subscribe.” Click and your feed has been added!

Gather feeds from a few other sites and add those, too, to your Reader. Let your RSS Reader will do all the work, keeping you current with dozens of Web sites, swiftly and efficiently.

One more interesting fact: Maybe you’ve noticed RSS feeds starting to appear on ordinary web sites. It’s true! RSS Feeds aren’t just for blogs anymore! See how an RSS feed on this new author’s site is set up to follow the author’s book tour.

Happy RSS-hunting to you!

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