Technology Tip: RSS Feeds
Disclaimer: RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is famously hard to explain. I took on the subject today with no small amount of anxiety. If you have any questions after reading this, please leave a comment or write me an email at jfoster[at]insureme.com.
In starting this post about the benefits of RSS, I will not offer a definition. I will instead present a scenario. A scenario that may reflect your daily experience...
Let’s say there are six web sites that you really enjoy. And you check them every day for new content.
After you visit site number one, you go to your bookmarks folder and navigate to number two. Or maybe you just type the address for each successive site into your browser. Either way, you access your favorite content by hopping from site to site to site to site. From the Insurance Journal to the InsureMe Agent Blog; from there to the Wall Street Journal; and from the Journal to the … you get the idea.
RSS makes it so you don’t have to hop. You can access all of your favorite content from multiple sites in one place.
Why use RSS? It saves time. It’s easier than bouncing back and fourth between sites.
Now imagine a different scenario. Imagine if you had separate e-mail accounts for each person that sends you e-mail. To see if Jane has sent you a message, you check your Jane e-mail account. If you’re curious if Bob sent you mail, you go to a separate e-mail inbox, where you read mail specifically from Bob. You check your mail from Steve in another e-mail account.
Such a set up would be silly and time-consuming, wouldn’t it? The reality—thankfully—is that you get all of your e-mail—from Jane, Bob and Steve—delivered to one place, to one inbox.
An RSS reader, as the folks at Google say, is "your inbox for the web.” And speaking of Google, I highly recommend using their reader because it’s easy to use and has a simple, uncluttered interface. Check it out. It’s easy to set up (there’s nothing to install) and they provide instructions on how to subscribe to feeds from your favorite sites.
Comments
Good post, Jeb.
I didn't think I'd ever use RSS feeds...but now I can't live without them! I can't tell you how much time I save going to one web site to see what's new—versus checking each of my favorite sites on a daily basis. Talk about a time-saver.
Regardless of your relationship with technology, taking advantage of RSS feeds is pretty easy. Follow Jeb's lead and get set up with Google. Couldn't be simpler, really.
Posted by: Megan Mahan | February 5, 2007 04:27 PM