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I couldn't live without my RSS feeds, which are the way I keep up with what's new online. (I read about 50 different feeds on technology, blogging, macs, photoshop, news, and women every day). Lots of less-geeky womenfolk still don't know what RSS feeds are, why they're useful, or how to use them. Sheila Scarborough, who authors the Family Travel blog, has written a short explanation of RSS for real people -- What the Heck's an RSS Feed and Why Do You Want One?. Here's my own RSS-in-a-nutshell guide for RSS newbies:
An RSS feed brings blog posts to your newsreader automatically. All you have to do is:
- Get a newsreader. Sheila uses Yahoo, but I'd recommend NetNewsWire, NetNewsWire Lite 2.0.1 is free. NetNewsWire 2.0.1, which has more features, is $19.99. NetNewsWire lives on your computer so you can read your subscribed feeds offline, but you can also sync NetNewsWire with NewsGator Online, which you can use to read your subscribed feeds on the internet from any computer.
- Subscribe to an RSS feed at a blog that you like. This step confuses some people. The easiest thing to do is look for an icon on a blog that reads RSS or Subscribe or XML and click that icon. Then select and copy the feed address in the address field of your web browser (Command+C on a Mac; Control+C on a PC). By the way, subscription is almost always free.
- Follow the instructions in your newsreader's help file for subscribing. Usually there's a subscribe button somewhere in the newsreader interface. Some newsreaders will automatically see the RSS feed address you've copied. Others require you to paste it from your clipboard (Command+V on a Mac; Control+V on a PC).
- Launch your newsreader, pour a cuppa, and enjoy reading through the list of posts in each of your feeds. Some feeds include full posts. Others include only headlines, on which you can click to see the full post in the newsreader or in a web browser.
Try it. It will change your life (or at least keep you from having to go outside in your jammies every morning to get your news on a dead tree).
