RSS Feeds

This won't be an exceptionally sexy post. But it may be helpful for either of you (because I assume only two people read this blog).

Sometimes I can go a week or more without posting. And then sometimes I post every day. So how do you know when I've posted? Well, you can travel each day to Frantlings (and all the other blogs that you like to visit) to check out what may or may not be new.

Or you can download the feeds into your reader and see the updates that way!

Huh? Download what and look at them in my what?

From Wikipedia:

RSS (most commonly translated as "Really Simple Syndication" but sometimes "Rich Site Summary") is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format.^[2] An RSS document (which is called a "feed", "web feed",^[3] or "channel") includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds can be read using software called an "RSS reader", "feed reader", or "aggregator", which can be web-based, desktop-based, or mobile-device-based. A standardized XML file format allows the information to be published once and viewed by many different programs. The user subscribes to a feed by entering into the reader the feed's URI – often referred to informally as a "URL" (uniform resource locator), although technically the two terms are not exactly synonymous – or by clicking an RSS icon in a browser that initiates the subscription process. The RSS reader checks the user's subscribed feeds regularly for new work, downloads any updates that it finds, and provides a user interface to monitor and read the feeds.

Basically, when you subscribe to RSS feeds of your favorite websites, you can read all the updated information, as it gets updated, in one place. You don't have to go to each individual website you want to keep up with to read the new updates. You can read them all, for instance, in your email client (Thunderbird, Outlook, etc). Or in your browser (Firefox, IE, etc). Or in special RSS feed readers (Google Reader, etc). So much better than having to go to each website!

In order to do this, you first have to make sure that your favorite websites have RSS feed capapbility. Look for a link, either at the top of the page or at the very bottom, that says something like RSS feed or Atom.

Next, you have to figure out where you want to get your feeds. Do you want to get them through your email client (if your client can read RSS feeds)? Or your browser? Or through a dedicated reader? It doesn't matter where you view the feeds; it just needs to be somewhere easily accessible to you.

Now that you've chosen the avenue for reading the feeds, find out how to add "subscriptions" for feeds. Once you know how to do that, for each website that you want to follow, click on the "RSS Feed" or "Atom" link on the page. You will then be taken to a page where you can either add this feed directly to your reader (if it's listed there) or you can copy the url address from that page and enter it into your reader.

If you have any problems, just Google the name of your reader (whether it's your email client or browser or whatever) and RSS feeds, and you should be able to find plenty of instructions and help for getting set up.

What a better way to keep up with all your favorite websites!

And for a little something different....

Introducing the new and improved Elton John!