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2.5: RSS readers and feeds

  • Page ID
    305530
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    How to make RSS feeds work for you: If you’ve ever received an e-mail “News Alert” from Google or Yahoo! on a search term that you set up, you understand the depth of information available on the Web and the need for smart technology to help you track it. E-mail, however, is not an efficient tool for tracking dozens or even hundreds of topics. RSS can do it, though, and help you track that many topics with the click of a mouse.

    “RSS is an important way of tracking what multiple people are saying about a certain subject,” said John Cook, a business reporter for the Seattle PostIntelligencer. “Also, a number of the companies I track keep blogs, so putting their feeds into my RSS reader is one way to stay up on what they are doing. With so much being written these days, this is one way to track what is going on.”

    “RSS feeds make it possible to consume far more information at a faster pace than would otherwise be possible for the human brain,” Marshall Kirkpatrick wrote on his blog (www.marshallk.com). Kirkpatrick is a well-known technology blogger who uses RSS to keep track of daily technology developments “without breaking a sweat.”

    RSS basics

    RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, which is a great name because the concept is just that: Really simple. It allows you to subscribe to an information feed that gets delivered directly to your RSS reader or Web browser. So instead of visiting several different Web pages each day or performing the same Web searches over and over, you can set up RSS feeds to do it for you.

    Why RSS? RSS is still emerging as a tool for Internet users. Since it’s a free subscription, Web publishers — news sites especially — love it for the consistent delivery of content. It’s also part of a growing movement away from consuming Web content by first going to a home page. Some industry figures suggest that 30 to 40 percent of traffic to news Web sites begins on an article page, not the home page. RSS is part of the reason for that. (Searches on Google and Yahoo! are a bigger reason, of course.)

    Some RSS feeds only give the reader the first paragraph of an article and force a user to visit the host’s Web page for the rest. This protects a Web site’s traffic numbers and ad-serving opportunities, but it can frustrate readers and is counter to the idea of making it as easy as possible for the audience to read your material.

    When the Los Angeles Times announced a major reorganization in January 2007, it made RSS technology a focal point for how it planned to emphasize publishing digitally first and for the printed paper second. The announcement followed a similar move by Gannett in 2006.

    “We are rebuilding our business to reflect how readers, users and advertisers are using media today,” David Hiller, publisher and CEO of the Times, said in a statement. “People choose different platforms and products to meet their varying news and information needs throughout the day, and we are positioning the Times to be there when they turn to us.”

    With the announcement, the company launched a new version of its flagship Web site: MyLATimes.com. The site uses RSS feeds to deliver content directly to computer users based on their interests. It is similar to the personalized home pages offered by Yahoo! and Google for years.

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    MyLATimes, an RSS-based personalized Web page.

    “Our philosophy going forward is, ‘Break it on the Web, expand on it in print,’” said Times editor Jim O’Shea. “We have to change what we are doing online, and also in print, to better engage readers and users who can choose every day among myriad sources for their news and information.”

    How does RSS work? When you subscribe to RSS feeds, you create a convenient, one-stop information shop tailored to your needs and interests. Setting up a feed is similar to bookmarking a Web site, but it’s much more efficient and powerful. And it’s really easy to get going. Here’s how:

    1. Select a reader.
    2. Find a feed.
    3. Add it to your reader.

    Select a reader: There are essentially two types of RSS readers to choose from. Web-based readers that you access by logging in to a specific Web page, or standalone software programs that you download to your computer and then launch. To understand the difference between Web-based readers and stand-alone versions, think of having a Hotmail account that allows you to check your e-mail from any computer (with Internet access) compared to using Outlook or Entourage, which you can only use on your computer.

    Web-based readers: Personalized home pages provided by Yahoo! and Google (among others) use RSS feeds to build a Web page with links to the information you choose. It’s easy to do without ever knowing how RSS actually works. Simply go to my.yahoo.com or www.google.com/ig, sign up for an account and select the information you’d like to receive automatically, then arrange the feeds on your page the way you want them to appear. (You can move them around by simply clicking and dragging the boxes.) Each time you return, the links will be updated automatically with the latest information from those Web sites.

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    A MyYahoo! start page with RSS feeds selected from Yahoo’s menu.

    Stand-alone readers: There are dozens of freely downloadable RSS readers that act like Web browsers. You set up your feeds and then launch the software each time you want to access the information. One benefit to stand-alone readers is the ability to download feeds when you have Internet access and then read them when you don’t (on an airplane or train, for example). Some popular options to consider include NetNewsWire, NewsGator, Pluck, FeedDemon and SharpReader.

    Because of their folder structures, stand-alone RSS readers like NetNewsWire (for the Mac) and SharpReader (Windows) work well. You can set up folders and subfolders according to the importance of the topics. The software will tell you how many items (new and total) are in each folder so you can quickly glance through the list to find any new items. It looks and acts a lot like a standard e-mail program.

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    A screenshot of RSS feeds organized in folders using SharpReader.

    You will probably find that the more feeds you add, the more you will discover as you follow links in blog posts and news articles. If you don’t find anything interesting about a feed a few days after subscribing to it, simply delete it.

    Best of both worlds: Netvibes, PageFlakes and the Google Reader are also good options if you want the functionality of stand-alone software (the folder structure) with the convenience of access on multiple computers.

    Note

    To find any of the software mentioned above, simply run a search on Google or Yahoo! for the name.

    Find a feed: Locate a link to RSS on the Web site with the content you want to receive automatically. Often, a little orange icon will signal the availability of RSS.

    Most news Web sites have an index page with dozens of feeds available. On the right is a partial list of feeds available on washingtonpost.com.

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    Click on the link to obtain the RSS URL, which you will see in the “address” field of your browser. Simply copy this URL and follow the instructions for your particular news reader to subscribe.

    If you click to subscribe to Howard Kurtz’s Media Notes, you will be taken to a page with the following Web address: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ wp-dyn/rss/linkset/2005/03/24/ LI2005032401283.xml

    Modern Web browsers such as Firefox and Internet Explorer will recognize a URL that ends with “xml” and automatically take you to a page that allows you to quickly add the feed to your reader. Here’s what that page looks like in Firefox:

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    What should you subscribe to?

    • Sections on news Web sites that are targeted to your interest or beat.
    • Any blog that discusses a topic of interest (not so much for what the blogger says, but for the links he or she finds).
    • Blogs by companies you cover.
    • Web searches such as Google News Alerts on terms, names of people and companies that you want to track.
    • Content from your own Web site that is worth tracking, such as most popular stories or letters to the editor.

    Adding a Web search to an RSS reader is also easy.

    1. Perform the news search (in Google News or Yahoo! News).
    2. Click on the RSS icon or link on the first results page (see arrow on screenshot below).

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    1. Copy and paste the URL into the Web address window on your RSS program.
    2. Hit Subscribe.
    Note

    If you have Firefox 2.0 or Internet Explorer 7 you can skip step 3 and select your RSS reader from the dropdown menu and click on the “Subscribe” button.


    This page titled 2.5: RSS readers and feeds is shared under a CC BY-ND 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Mark Briggs via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.