RSS - Why you need it!

I’ve been rather surprised recently just how much I'm using RSS as part of my everyday life so I thought that I’d give a little information here about how I’m accessing it and why I’m using it rather than plain old web pages.

First of all though what is RSS? RSS stands for (according to most people) “Really Simple Syndication.”  Plain and simply it provides a way for web sites to distribute their content outside of a web browser (if you wish!). A news web site might have an RSS newsfeed which contains breaking stories, while a magazine web site may provide a feed with excerpts of their latest articles.

An actual RSS file is nothing more than a list of items, each of which has a title, a description and a link to the web page where the item appears.

So how do you access these RSS feeds? Lets take the example of the BBC's UK news website.   The same information is available in an RSS feed.  A newsreader program enables you to read RSS newsfeed from your desktop, so you can browse information from dozens - or hundreds - of web sites without ever visiting them. So why would you want to use a newsreader program when you can just view the pages on the web?

“In a world heaving under the weight of billions of web pages, keeping up to date with the information you want can be a drag. Wouldn't it be better to have the latest news and features delivered directly to you, rather than clicking from site to site?”

I currently have 23 channels (RSS feeds) that I can access directly from my newsreader program. I don’t have to click to 23 websites and wait for the page to load up before looking to see if any new information has been put on. I load my newsreader program and it tells me if there are any new posts in all 23 websites within seconds. Every 5 minutes or whatever time I put it it checks the sites again looking for new posts. Then I can just view the post by clicking on the link.  You can find RSS feeds at sites such as Technorati,   Feedster, and Syndic8.com.

Not only that but I can set can watches for items in RSS feeds which contain specific keywords, alerting you to stories of interest. For example, football fans could ask their newsreader to watch for items about their favourite team.

When you find a news item of interest, you can copy it  for future reference. This provides a very simple way to store items from different RSS feeds in one location, making them a great tool for researchers.

Where can I get a Newsreader Program? There are lots of different newsreader programs available on every platform so you shouldn’t have too much difficulty finding one that has the features that suit you.  Prices range from Free to expensive subscription systems. Below are a few newsreaders that I have trialed.

Firefox – Yes firefox itself has the ability to let you view RSS news and blog headlines in the bookmarks toolbar or bookmarks menu. Try clicking on the RSS icon and selecting the RSS feed to my Blog. Clicking on the icon ( and selecting an RSS feed will bring up the Add Bookmark dialog. Select 'OK' and you will see Live Bookmarks with the rest of your bookmarks. Many people find it especially convenient to save Live Bookmarks in their Bookmarks Toolbar folder.

 Lektora – A newsreader extension that works in Firefox and Internet Explorer.  Lektora is the FREE RSS feed aggregator that integrates seamlessly with Firefox and Internet Explorer to enable easy reading of news feeds within the web browser. Offering an intuitive user interface and highly polished aesthetic, Lektora simplifies subscribing to, reading and managing web site news feeds, without sacrificing performance.

 FeedDemon – This is by far my favourite newsreader although there is a small one time charge to purchase the program. This feature rich program easily beats any other program currently available in my personal opinion. Some of the features include: Easy-to-read newspaper displays the latest news from dozens of sites, Built-in podcast receiver downloads audio to your iPod or other media player, Watches alert you to items of interest so you don't have to look for them and News bins store your favorite items for future reference.

There are also a variety of programs that allow you to view RSS feeds as part of your email software or on your PDA ( Have a look at the Palm Gear website for examples on your Palm.)

To conclude I recommend you try out RSS. You’ll save time and find that information comes to you rather than you going to look for it. If you want a list of the feeds that I have to get you going let me know and I’ll email them.

Please feel free to comment on this post and let me know about how you get on with RSS.