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RSS Feeds! Do it. Here is Why.

Hey folks! Just a quick, super valuable tip here!

If you are lazy like me, Stagecoach Designs recently posted a reference to a really well done video that covers the topic quite well in just a few minutes:

http://www.stagecoachdesigns.com/blog/2009/05/by-nik/a-simple-look-at-really-simple-syndication/

If your are a nerd, also like me, you can also visit the Wikipedia page on the subject.

Finally, if you actually like my crappy way of explaining things, read on…

So, RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication”. WOW! Who cares.

Basically, most modern websites now have the innate ability to summarize their content and content updates into a “feed”. In other words, you can quickly glance over all of their pages and articles the way you would look at Google search results. This has the potential to make your life a lot easier.

For example, using Firefox, which I hope one day will come with your computer instead of the insanely more stupid Internet Explorer (Safari is ok too by the way), you can subscribe to a website by clicking on their big old RSS button, or RSS link(s). The icon is typically orange and it looks like a broadcasting signal. We have one on the right column of this website by the way!

One trick I like to use ocassionally is just to type “feed” into the homepage URL of a website I am considering subscribing myself to.

e.g. www.website-url.com/feed, or www.website-url.com/blog/feed

This way I get to quickly glance at what they have done recently and decide whether I am subscribing or not.

Firefox by default uses what the call “Live Bookmarks”, which actually generate dropdown menus with the latest article titles from the website you subscribed too.

Other people actually prefer to use free services like Google Reader or My Yahoo to send and categorize all of their feeds in one place.

Moreover, for the people out there that are hardcore programmers (and are at least familiar with PHP), there is the SimplePie library that gives you a really nice set of functions you can use to manipulate all this information.

One of my personal projects in the near future, will involve nicely displaying My Daily Reads, which are just a bunch of websites that try to keep up with. So, stay tuned for more on that later.

Finally, here is why you should do it: it saves tons of time! Specially if you like to follow the news here and there or if you know different bloggers all over the place that you would like to keep up with. Believe me, most people can be interesting.