RSS? you don't need to know what it means
Remember how email transformed the way we communicated?News feeds have the same potential. Using aggregators to monitor news, journal table of contents, blogs, weather, web pages and discussion lists has tranformed the way I keep up-to-date.
Aggregating and feed reading functionality will soon be part of the standard operating environment for most of us as it is built in to web browsers like Firefox and Internet Explorer 7. And you already may be using it, without realising in some web services. So now is a good time to plunge in to the world of rss. And you don't need to know what it stands for. You do need to know that you can keep up with more information while doing less hunting for it.
What can you use it for?
News / Journal TOCs / Weather / Entertainment / Social Bookmarks / Photographs / Website updates / Comics / Discussion lists / Research / Searches / Calendars / and more stuff coming available every day.
Need more convincing? - Take Luke Rosenberg's tutorial Hot - Fresh - Delivered or let's get started now.
Labels: current awareness, feed readers, news, rss feeds
First off
Step 1. You will need to get a news reader. What, how, where?
There are different types of news readers. If you have a laptop that you use almost exclusively you might prefer a locally installed news reader. If you move between different computers, then a web-based reader might be better. Want it on your Blackberry?
News readers have different features - you'll need to consider your preferences in making a decision.
There's a good list available here to consider, but in the meantime how about getting a feel for the functionality by starting with a free, simple-to-use, web-based service like Bloglines.
Update: Internet Explorer 7 has a built in feed reader. But if you are looking for something with more features there are plenty of other options to explore.
Labels: feed readers, news aggregators, rss feeds
Feed up!
Step 2.
Start subscribing - there are different ways to find feeds
Start subscribing - there are different ways to find feeds
- RSS reader directory and searching
Within Bloglines (and other reader services) there is (usually) a directory of feeds for you to choose from. Alternatively you can search for feeds that might be of interest. One of the nice features in Bloglines is that you can preview the feed very easily before clicking on the subscribe button. Yahoo's advanced search lets you limit your results to file formats RSS/XML, so you can hunt for feeds only. - Feed directories - just a small selection to get you started
Feedsfarm
Feedster
Syndic8
Technorati - Serendipitous subscriptions
What the heck does that mean? When you are surfing the web and you just happen to come across a site of interest, take a good look for one of these sort of buttons.Bloggers often provide a list of other blogs that they subscribe to themselves. This is called a blogroll and is usually visible in the sidebar of a blog.
Firefox and Internet Explorer 7 use this icon to represent feeds.
If a website includes coding to tell the browser that feeds are available the icon will change from grey to orange in the toolbar. - Import opml files
OK - go read what opml means - just the first bit of the definition will do, then come back here.
Some kindly people, libraries and some services on the web provide a bundle of rss feeds ready for you to import all at once into your newsreader. If you want to explore this area some more, take a look at OPMLworkstation - where you can create opml files (not just rss ones, but other flavours too) or just search for bundles of feeds that you like. Either save the xml page as a txt file for uploading, or if URL imports are available in your reader just insert the URL.
Labels: feed directories, opml, rss feeds, subscriptions
Managing your feeds
Step 3
This could be the start of something big. Look at the title of this blog. The point of using feeds is to keep yourself more informed, while spending less time and effort hunting for information and then storing and managing it.
It's important to make your feed reader do the hard work. So look for features that will help. Putting in the effort in the early days to organise your feeds into folders and using the reader's functionality to save and redisplay the posts of interest will mean less time relocating information.
This could be the start of something big. Look at the title of this blog. The point of using feeds is to keep yourself more informed, while spending less time and effort hunting for information and then storing and managing it.
It's important to make your feed reader do the hard work. So look for features that will help. Putting in the effort in the early days to organise your feeds into folders and using the reader's functionality to save and redisplay the posts of interest will mean less time relocating information.
- Set up a folder, or category structure that makes sense for you.
- Save or move individual posts into a clippings area, or blog about it yourself
- Use "keep new" or "mark unread" features to keep a useful post on display - but turn that off once it is no longer relevant
- Unsubscribe from feeds that end just being clutter
Labels: features, feed readers, folders, rss feeds
Become a trusted advisor
Step 4.Now that you are so up-to-date, you can share what you know with your friends and colleagues alerting them to articles and events that are of interest to them.
Many newsreaders have a feature that enables you to send on a useful clipping to other people. Be selective about what you are forwarding - the last thing you want is to annoy others with hundreds of emails, but if you choose wisely you can provide timely and informative news and become a trusted advisor.
Look for an email link or button, or in a desktop application a menu item or option that will open your email application and insert the contents of the feed's post/article.
If you are using a web-based service, consider sending it to yourself first and then forward on to your friend or colleague. This way you will have a copy in your sent items folder in case you have to follow up. You can then customise the message to add your own commentary about the information and your own signature file will be included.
Labels: collaboration, email, library services, sharing
What are they saying about us?
Step 5.
Now we're really taking things up a level. You want to know what's being said about your company, or a particular topic?
It's time to think about making your own feeds based on searches. Imagine if you could do a search on a search engine and then have it run for you every day to see what new things are being published on the web, and even better the result delivered directly to you.
Take some time to explore this.
Now we're really taking things up a level. You want to know what's being said about your company, or a particular topic?
It's time to think about making your own feeds based on searches. Imagine if you could do a search on a search engine and then have it run for you every day to see what new things are being published on the web, and even better the result delivered directly to you.
Take some time to explore this.
- Bloglines - If you have a bloglines account go to the search tab and do your search. Once the results are back you can subscribe to the search.
- Technorati - Once signed in to your account, use the watchlist to set up search feeds.
- Read Chris Sherman's article at SEW on RSS search engines. He lists several other sites offering this service.
Labels: current awareness, marketing, search engine watch, search result feeds, watchlists
Feed that tag
Step 6.Tagging is a recent trend on many web services that come under the web 2.0 umbrella. Often it is possible to subscribe to a feed of new resources, links, research and photographs that have been tagged.
Some scenarios:
- You love making model cars and would like to see photographs of them. Flickr is a photograph sharing site that provides a feed for every tag that is used. Here is the page for "model cars", scroll to the bottom and you'll find a link to the feed.
- You are researching in the area of physiology and want to find out other web resources people have found useful. Connotea provides feeds for tags too, and so does del.ici.ous
- You are an avid reader and would like to see books on a favourite topic. Librarything has feeds for books recently tagged and for recently reviewed books with a tag.
Labels: connotea, del.ici.ous, flickr, librarything, rss feeds, tagging
What? no feed
Step 7.
What if your favourite website (well, maybe not favourite, but important source of information) does not provide an RSS feed?
There are a few services available that will help you create feed for just this sort of occasion. Remember though, that this is for your personal use. You can't go around stealing content - so ask first if you want to share the feed with other readers. Or why not ask the site owner to consider providing a feed.
Here are some services you can investigate, they will either step you through the process or provide tutorials. Ask a techie friend to help out if you are not sure what you are looking at when viewing html coding. Feedtier is probably the easiest to use.
Wotzwot
What if your favourite website (well, maybe not favourite, but important source of information) does not provide an RSS feed?
There are a few services available that will help you create feed for just this sort of occasion. Remember though, that this is for your personal use. You can't go around stealing content - so ask first if you want to share the feed with other readers. Or why not ask the site owner to consider providing a feed.
Here are some services you can investigate, they will either step you through the process or provide tutorials. Ask a techie friend to help out if you are not sure what you are looking at when viewing html coding. Feedtier is probably the easiest to use.
Wotzwot
Labels: feed services, rss feeds, screen scraping
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