So you have probably seen an icon or text saying RSS feed, subscribe, add to your reader etc. Ever wondered what its all about ?
RSS means Really Simple Syndication, which doesn’t really explain what use it is to you. To best explain it let us look at the benefit it brings, how it can save you a significant amount of time and then we can forgive it having a stupid name.
I expect you have a load of websites you visit regularly to see whats new, so lets go through those steps
- Open Browser
- Go to sites on favorites
- Scroll through seeing whats new
- Click on a link to read the content
- Go back to find the next page you want to view
- Click on the page and view it
- Repeat for each of your favorite sites
Now lets look at the same experience after you are setup with an RSS reader.
- Open Browser
- Go to your reader site from favorites
- Get a list of every new page from all your favorite sites in one list
Now that last one is quite a powerful thing to comprehend. Every new page from ALL your favorite sites – in one list. Its like a table of contents customised for you.
Now take the next step and you could have that same list – updated from your last visit on your phone, console, work and home PCs. All up-to-date and you can leave your reading off where you left it, picking it up again whatever device you access your feed from again.
In part two I will describe how you get this setup – its really easy and free. You will need a google account to follow my instructions (other readers are available and work in a similar way), so if you don’t have one yet sign one up now.