If information overload isn't a concern and you are finding surfing all your sites slow and laborious, then RSS may be what you need. I don't know about you, but my Favourites list is extensive. Even with fine tuning, it can take quite a while to get my information fix. When time or patience is limited then RSS can save the day. RSS is popularly believed to stand for Really Simple Syndication. It is an XML protocol that can publish frequently updated web content to a reader or aggregator.
According to Wikipedia; 'RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines, and podcasts in a standardized format. An RSS document (which is called a "feed," "web feed," or "channel") contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with web sites in an automated manner that can be piped into special programs or filtered displays.' The web content that RSS collects is called a feed. This feed is advertised by the website that published it and RSS readers pick it up and display it to the user. Once a website has been updated, an XML file is created which contains the main URL and a set of links for the newly published content. Each link will contain a title, the link, and a brief description. The RSS reader downloads this file and shows it in the reader to the user to browse. It will display the information contained in the brief description and a link to the actual page.
The RSS reader continually scans the websites for changes in this XML file and updates appropriately. I use Netvibes to show all my RSS Feeds, but there are plenty of other readers to choose from such as Bloglines or GoogleReader. There are desktop versions such as FeedReader or FeedDemon. Personally I prefer to use web based readers, so I can access them anywhere, but the choice is yours... I will briefly cover using Bloglines and FeedReader to give you an idea of how they work. Bloglines Bloglines is the web based reader that I used to use before consolidating into NetVibes. It is a clean and easy application to use, and reading and adding feeds is easy. Once you set up an account and sorted your preferences you are ready to go. The site will suggest some feeds to get you started, feel free to ignore them if they don't interest you. A feed URL is slightly different to a normal one.
The format will be something like; http://yoursite.com/?feed=rss2. You can click on the RSS icon and Bloglines should pick up the request and ask you if you want to subscribe to the feed using it. Once subscribed, it will appear on the left of the screen under the Feeds tab. The feeds themselves will appear on the right. Clicking on the headline will take you to the site hosting the page. FeedReader This is a desktop application that does a similar thing to Bloglines. The main difference being that this one is hosted on your machine. It's free and open source and is easy and intuitive to use. Once installed it looks like a simplified version of Bloglines. Your feeds are displayed on the left and the posts on the right. The unread ones are shown in bold. Once you click on a post it will bring up the description text and the link to the site. There is a big 'Add Feed' button that should really speak for itself. Click on it and add the feed address and let it go and update. The program will run in the background and update each hour so you will always be up to date.
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