What is RSS?

January 28, 2008 5:10 pm · By Todd Gill · 5 Comments

Let me guess what you’re thinking: “I’ve heard of RSS and wondered what it is but it sounds complicated, boring and geeky. Jeez, I can’t even believe I clicked on this page. Please give me a reason to click the ‘back’ button on my browser so I can get the heck out of here before someone sees what I’m reading.” Was I close?

What is RSS?

RSS is what all your friends are using to keep track of their favorite websites. Why? Because it makes their lives way easier, that’s why. And it can do the same for you.

Instead of ‘bookmarking’ all your favorite sites and checking them one by one to see if anything new is available, RSS does all of that for you which gives you more time to do something way cooler than surfing the web…like maybe karate…or bow hunting.

What does RSS stand for?

Who cares what it stands for? If you really wanted to know, you’d have already gone to Wikipedia and found out for yourself. I’m assuming you just want to know how to use it, right?

How do I use RSS?

First off, you get yourself an RSS Reader. An RSS Reader is the actual program that will go out to all of your favorite sites and see if anything new has been posted. If it finds something new, it will let you know so you don’t have to do all that work yourself.

Don’t freak out! It’s way easier than you think! A quick Google search will bring up a ton of different RSS readers but a quick way to get started would be to use a free service like Google Reader or Bloglines.

Now that you’re set up with a reader, all you have to do is subscribe to some feeds. Feeds are something that your favorite websites already have set up and they’re just sitting there waiting for you to subscribe to them.

Where are these ‘Feeds’?

You can find a feed in one of two places: on the website or in your browser.
On the website: Sometimes websites put little icons (usually orange) on the site that say ‘RSS’ or ‘XML’ or ‘Subscribe’ or something like that. I’m sure you’ve seen them.
In your browser: Lots of browsers can automatically detect a feed and display an icon in the address bar for you to click on if you feel the urge.

Here are some examples:

OK, now what?

Most RSS readers are designed so that all you have to do is click one of those icons I mentioned above and ‘Voila!’ you’re subscribed. Others insist on making you copy the feed location (usually a right-click on the icon) and then paste it into your reader. Both Google Reader and Bloglines have excellent instructions so it should be a breeze. And once you’ve figured it out, subscribing will become second nature.

Wait, does the Fayetteville Flyer have it?

Of course we do. In fact, we have all kinds of feeds. We have an Entries Feed which will send you everything we post and we have a Comments Feed that will send you every single comment that is made on our site. That’s not all, though. You can even click on one of the categories in our navigation bar and from inside there, you can subscribe to specific categories only. Go ahead, give it a shot. You can even test it out on us first before you venture out into the wide world of time-saving technology.

Know of any further reading?

Yup. Here are some great places to learn more about RSS:

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Discussion

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By trim cram on January 28th, 2008

I like that you wrote an article about RSS but refused to define the term.

By the Steve on January 28th, 2008

awesome article, Jarsh. I’ll bet there are more that a few who have no idea what that little orange icon is for, but were too afraid to ask. Nice work.