#8 Make life “really simple” with RSS & a newsreader

What is RSS?

If you think about the websites and news information sources you visit every day, you realize it takes a long time to get to each website, evaluate and read the information.

 

What if you could visit all those information sources and web pages in just one place and all at the same time? You can.

Watch the video below for an overview of RSS.

 

 

RSS is an acronym for “Really Simple Syndication,” a format used to keep up with recently published entries for blogs, newsfeeds, podcasts or websites.

 

RSS Readers
The summarized content of different web sites can be read using software called an RSS reader (also called an aggregator, news reader or feed reader). There are many different RSS readers (see below). We’ll be using Google Reader here.

 

RSS Feeds
You can subscribe to the websites you want to follow (via little pieces of code called feeds) by entering the website addresses into the RSS reader. To be able to subscribe to a site in an RSS reader the site must have a news feed.

The feeds go into your RSS Reader. The feeds are simply URLs for, and many sites indicate this by an orange news feed icon: or

 

Discovery Exercise

 

1. Go to the Google Reader site and sign into your Google account (this is the same as your Google email account, which you made earlier).
   
2. You’re now ready to start subscribing to feeds.
   
3. Over on the left, you’ll see Add Subscription, and next to it is a little link to Discover
   
4. Click on Discover to find some feeds that interest you. You can search using keywords. Try library.
   
5. Subscribe to 3 feeds.
   
6. Play around in Google Reader to see how it works. Read some of your feeds.
   
7. On your blog, add links to your 3 feeds. What appealed to you about these feeds?

More information for the curious

Types of Readers

1. Client software - Readers you download and install on your computer
   • FeedDemon
   • Once you install and download a reader, you can only access your feeds on that computer. Great for mobile users who have a laptop!
2. Web-based - Readers you access online via the web
   • Google Reader
   • Bloglines
   • Rojo.com
   • The advantage of using a web-based RSS reader like Google Reader is the same as using web-based email: it can be accessed from any web browser.

View a full list of common readers you can use.

What kinds of sites have feeds?
Any kind of site can have a feed. Setting up RSS on a site it not difficult. You’ll find sites for all different interests when you use the Discover feature in Google Reader. Some examples:

News sites:

• NPR
• CNN
• New York Times

Libraries:

• Georgetown Public Library – Teen Space
• RSS Feeds from Ann Arbor District Library
• Maricopa County Library District – New Titles
• Arizona Memory Project
• New York Public Library Newsfeed

Fun Sites (for me at least):

• Design*Sponge 
• I has a hot dog 
• Apartment Therapy
• Dear Ada 
• The Sartorialist 
• 101 Cookbooks
• SwissMiss
• Time’s Top Blogs for 2007

 

RSS Magic!
Once subscribed, the reader checks for new content and retrieves it. No effort on your part! You just go into your reader, and can see everything you want to read in one place.