I mentioned the use of feed readers in yesterday’s post, and I thought it might be a good idea to delve into the topic of RSS feeds, subscribing to blogs, and and feed readers in more detail.

What are RSS feeds? A feed is a special file that lists summaries or full posts from sites or blogs, with a link to the original post. This feed might contain the last X posts from one blog, or it might be a mashup of posts from several sources, all related to one topic. As an example, this blog publishes a feed of the last 10 posts. If I wanted to, I could also put together a feed that lists the last 10 posts of several news sites. There are infinite ways that RSS feeds can be put together in a mix-and-match fashion, but for learning purposes today, we’ll just concentrate on the simplest model - One Blog - One Feed - Last 10 Posts. That is the most common application of the RSS feed that the average person deals with. If you look to the right, you’ll see a large purple button. This button points to this blog’s RSS feed, which lists the last 10 posts I’ve written. (Note that RSS feed buttons are usually orange - I’m different that way).

Of what use is an RSS feed? The ability to subscribe to feeds simply makes it easy for you to keep up with all the blogs or sites you might be interested in. If a blog or site publishes a feed, you can subscribe to that feed, and you’ll be notified any time a new post is made. This keeps you up to date at all times, and you don’t have to remember to visit the site. Many people subscribe to lots of feeds (I subscribe to 80 or so), and I certainly wouldn’t want to have to remember to visit all of those sites every day. Instead, new posts get delivered to me via my feed subscriptions. I can see all the new posts in one place anytime I choose. Where is that “one place”? These feeds all reside in my feed reader.

What is a feed reader? A feed reader is simply an aggregator of feed content. It checks for updated feeds and stores them all together for our browsing pleasure. There are many feed readers available and choosing one is really a personal preference. Most are free, but some are paid. Frankly, I won’t even consider the paid options, because the free options are simply too good to pass up. There’s no way I could possibly list or test all of the feed readers, but I’m happy to pass along a couple of good examples of each type of reader. I suggest you look at or try the ones that seem most compatible with your style and choose whichever fits you best. (All the ones I list here are free).

Browser-Based Feed Readers

Browser-based feed readers are already installed and available right in your browser, so you really don’t have to do anything to use them. Both IE7 and Firefox let you know if a feed is available on the address bar by showing you a little orange feed button. You can click it to subscribe to the built-in browser’s feed reader. While this is the simplest, already installed method, it’s definitely not the most robust, but it may be all you need.

Desktop Feed Readers

Desktop feed readers are conventional programs that you install on your computer. This is my favorite type of reader because I don’t have to take the extra step of going anywhere online to see new feeds. Here are a couple of choices of desktop feed readers you might want to consider.

GreatNews - This is the one I use, and I haven’t yet been able to find anything I like better.
Snarfer - Very nice reader with a really cute logo mascot.

Web-Based Feed Readers

This category focuses on feed readers that are online only, and their primary focus is that of a feed reader.

Bloglines
Google Reader

Web-Based Start Pages with Feed Capabilities

This category is also online only, but the primary focus is that of a start page with aggregated content from various sources, including RSS feeds. The look and feel is different than the normal feed reader design.

Netvibes
Pageflakes

Test the various types of feed readers and see which one suits you best. You can use my feed as a test by subscribing to it in each of the readers and seeing which works best for you. Then, any time you come across a site and see that it has a feed (the orange RSS button - or purple in my case), you can click that button to subscribe to it in your feed reader. From then on, you’ll be able to easily keep up with any new information from that site.

(from Smash Mouth. "AllStar" Astro Lounge. Interscope Records, 1999.)

Posted on October 1st, 2007 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: Tech Advice