RSS Made Simple

RSS - Simply Easy

RSS is something that has befuddled me for a long while and I had successfully ignored it. Don't think me lazy just because I was successful in the attempt. Coz I did read it about it. Quite a few times. And each time, I became more determined to ignore it ... for as long as I could.

Well my day of reckoning has come. I need to know more(?) about it. So here is a very layman's point of view. No gafuffle. No techy talk to throw you off. Just Simple What and Simple Hows.

This short article is not for the techno-geeks - so don't no one go shooting me down, ok?
This is just for all the people like me who just want to get a grasp on this RSS thing that will not go away. And you know you have the same sneaky suspicion as I do ... that you might actually want to use it, if you only knew what & how!

With RSS, you are either a reader/user or you are a publisher. (Of course you are allowed to be both, but let's not jump into separate pools at the same time.) To help, think in terms of a magazine: you are a subscriber (reader) of a mag, or you are the publisher. Same magazine but very different viewpoints, needs, and requirements.

So I will deal with RSS simply, from each viewpoint, one at a time.

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General Viewpoint: What is RSS

RSS can stand for 2 generally accepted phrases: "Really Simple Syndication" or "Rich Site Summary"
But in the end, it does not matter. You are only interested in how you can use it right?

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User Viewpoint: RSS - What and How and Why

As a person reading/looking for information of whatever kind, you would have already come across RSS in some way or another. A lot of sites are RSS enabled and you know this coz they have the RSS icon somewhere on their site, usually the home page. The RSS icon is easily recognizable tho it can come in many different shapes/images.

Why would you want to use RSS?

Do you:

• have favourite sites?
• do you bookmark them?
• do you forget to check back on them as you intended?
• do you have so many bookmarks you don't know where or what they are anymore?
• do you just want to know when there is updated/new information (or news or products or sales) at your favourite sites and not waste time checking only to find the same old un-updated stuff?

If you said yes to any of the above, then RSS can help! Yes, believe it or not. Read on!

In a very small, tight nutshell, if you are "subscribed to an RSS feed" (I will explain that shortly) then you only need to go to ONE place to check if any of your favourite sites have had updates. Usually you will see just a list of (updated) summaries, or very short blurbs. And you can decide from there if you care to read further or not.

OK, that all sounds good doesn't it? Now what hoops do you have to jump through to enjoy those benefits?

The truth is, you can jump through many many hoops. But not here. I am just going to go with the simplest way I can find.

What you need to do

Get a RSS reader.

(no, please don't panic!)
Look at it this way:
* if you are reading this page, it is more than likely you are using a web browser (like IE, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, .....)
* if you get emails, you are using some email software (like Outlook, Outlook Express, or some web-based email program)
It all sounds complicated but when you use it, it's not.

So just like there are many kinds of web browsers or email programs around, there are many RSS readers. But not to confuse you, I will just recommend a popular one (which I have also chosen to use): Google Reader (free)

(You go there and from that point, you will be fully guided and it will be all very simple.)

Once you have gotten your RSS reader, all you need to do is subscribe to your favourite sites.

How to Subscribe to Sites

RSS Subscribing to Sites is even better than joining a site's newsletter/maillist, or having to visit the site just to look for updates, or even bookmarking the sites in the hopes you will remember to come back and visit them.

When you RSS subscribe, you don't need to give email address, contact names, or remember that horrendously growing list of passwords. You just subscribe and then when you go to your RSS reader, any new news from any site you have subscribed to will all be there - in one place - for you to read, or not. And you can delete a subscription at any time from your reader - no need to contact the site to ask to be unsubscribed, etc.

How do you RSS Subscribe?
Whenever you are on a site you like and would like to keep informed on updates, and you see their RSS icon (or link, or button), you just click!

Now you are likely to see one of 2 types of pages when you click.
1) a page with buttons that you can do a 1-click subscription and be able to read from your RSS reader.
2) or you could see a page appear with a lot of code that might look something like this image. All you want is the URL.

Copy that.
Go to your RSS reader
There is usually a button or link that says something like "Add a subscription".
Click that.
Paste in the URL you just copied.
That's it! You are subscribed.

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Recommended Movie on RSS

This video makes it very simple to get a good handle on RSS and I recommend giving it a viewing.

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Publisher Viewpoint: RSS

Sorry, I can't give you any technical details. There are lots of places on the web if you are this way inclined. I am just going to mention generalities.

If you are a (web) publisher - whether you write blogs, articles, or run your own site - then to have your pages RSS ready would be advantageous to you. (More subscribed readers, they can get updated automatically, you don't have to do extra mail outs). Your readers can just click on your RSS button/link to subscribe to your contents and they will be informed whenever you have new content or updates.

If you have a Drupal site, you can also easily RSS Enable your Drupal site so that visitors can simply subscribe with a click.

Additionally if you are a publisher or own a site of some kind and you want to get information from other sites and plonk them on your site, then RSS can also help. This will give your site fresh content (e.g. when you get updates news from some site (e.g. news site) and place some of that info on your site's pages). And it is done automatically so you don't need to continuously and manually update all the time.