Help Guide - RSS Feeds
September 1, 2007 | In Help Guides |
Table of contents for Introduction To Blogging
- Help Guide - Blogs
- Help Guide - RSS Feeds
What is an RSS feed? How do they work?
RSS stands for either “Rich Site Summary” or “Really Simple Syndication” depending on who you ask. I prefer the term “e-mail newsletter on steroids” although that doesn’t abbreviate to RSS. 
If you have ever subscribed to an e-mail newsletter, or any newsletter for that matter, then you know that periodically, you receive an update from the publisher of the newsletter. In the case of RSS, the “newsletter” is any updates to a blog (website, comments, etc.) that you would like to know about. The RSS service on the blog sends out the “newsletter” any time there is a new update. In RSS speak, the “newsletter” is referred to as a “feed.”
However, RSS doesn’t come to you via e-mail (updates can usually be requested via e-mail, but that is a different sign up process.) RSS feeds are delivered via a “reader”, which is a separate piece of software that is able to read RSS feeds - just like you need special software to read e-mail, you need special software to read RSS feeds. And - just like e-mail, there are readers you put on your computer, and readers you can use through the internet for free. I personally use Google Reader (which is one accessed through the internet for free.)
Ok, so now you’ve got the nutshell version of how they work - why on earth would you want to use one? You don’t have to of course, but in today’s world we need all the help we can to make things faster. RSS feeds do that for us.
The “old way” to follow a blog was to bookmark it. Then, if you were interested in seeing if the blog had something new, you would go check the blog and see. But what if there wasn’t? And what if you wanted to follow 10 or 15 (or more) different blogs? Well, now we’re looking at a lot of time, and the possibility of a lot of wasted time.
Enter the “new way” - RSS feeds. When you subscribe to a blog’s RSS feed, you get a copy of any new posts in your reader just after they’ve been added. If there aren’t any new posts, you don’t get a message. When you go to your reader, you see a list of the blogs you’ve subscribed to, with the number of new messages listed. Right there, on one page, you can tell how many new posts you have to read. No more bumping around the web from blog to blog looking for new posts.
“Cool!” you say. “How do I sign up?” Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I’ve put together a short tutorial that takes you step by step through subscribing to Ripples of Improvement.come using Google Reader.
If you are not already logged into Google, there will be an extra step to do that below. The following directions presume you are logged in.
First step: find the RSS button at the top of the blog. Mine is on the right side, just under the menu bar.
Before I go further, let me give you a tip: all RSS buttons should look similar, with the dot and 2 curved lines, like ripples moving out from a stone. (It’s probably actually supposed to represent broadcast waves, but I couldn’t resist!)
Actually, the standard button is orange:
However, like mine, they can be a different color, or they can be customized. The coolest customization I found was on Play Like A Girl. Her’s is a pink guitar pic, as you can see from the screen shot below:
Another place to find them, if a button isn’t obvious, is in the url bar as below: 
Ok, so now you’ve found the RSS button. When you click on it, you will be taken to this page:
Click on “Subscribe with Google”: 
Which brings you to this page:
Almost there - one more step! Click on “Add to Google Reader”: 
Finally, we arrive at the end. The feed has been added to Google Reader as below:
Success! As you can see, I’ve already subscribed to my own feed and put it into a folder. You can also see I’m subscribed to several other feeds as well. (Right click and choose view image on the image above for a larger, clearer version.)
That’s it! Any more questions, or confusion, please feel free to leave me a comment below.
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