If you have been anywhere near the Internet in the last five years, it is doubtful you have avoided learning the definition of a new popular medium for writing: the blog.
Blogs, shortened from 'web log', are really just a collection articles, called posts, similar to magazine articles, but online.
Though many people are familiar with this new form of communication, few have learned to master its use. You probably know where to purchase your favorite magazine, but what if you forget your favorite blog's web address?
Or what about this: You have ten blogs you enjoy reading, but who has the time to check ten blogs every day just to see if they've been updated. After all, some authors update update regularly while others do sporadically; not nearly as dependable as the monthly magazine.
RSS technology addresses some of these issues, but it is underused.
What is an RSS feed?
RSS, or "Really Simple Syndication", is a common publishing format shared by most blogs. An RSS aggregator or RSS Reader, as they are more commonly called, can easily store, track and update you with the latest posts from the blogs you want to follow.
Note that if you want to monitor a web page without an RSS feed, you can use a service like ChangeDetect which monitors any web page for changes.
To use the magazine comparison once more, an RSS aggregator is like a shelf that you keep all your magazines only better: this shelf sends out little robots every fifteen or so minutes to find out if any new articles have been written, and if they have been, the robots fly them instantly home to your shelf!
There are two types of aggregators: desktop and online RSS aggregators. With the increasing usefulness and ubiquity of online software, online aggregators are becoming the preferred choice of many.
How can I get started?
You can choose from several online versions, and many are free. Yahoo and Google are worthy of mention. For the Google Reader, you will need to sign up for an account. Your web browser probably has a default set to use a feed reader already; you may want to check the settings.
The next step is simply to go to a favorite blog and look for the "RSS" link. Click it, then check back in your online RSS aggregator to ensure that it was included. If you have trouble getting the link to communicate with your reader through your browser, you can always go to the address of your reader and manually enter the RSS feed address of the blogs you want to follow.
You can also set how many posts to display at a time.
0 comments:
Post a Comment