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Save time by using a RSS Reader

12 January 2010

If you access lots of websites and look at people's blogs on a regular basis, then you should look at using a RSS reader and make life a bit more simple. 

What is a RSS Reader?

In simple terms it will help bring changing information that you are interested to you. The RSS reader helps you manage this from a single place and saves you a job of having to look at lots of different sites to keep up to date.
 
It stands for Really Simple Syndication and the technology has been around for many years. Most people don't seem to know what it is or how it can be of benefit. You'll find the best definition of RSS on Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS
 

Simple steps to get going with RSS

Whenever you see the orange symbol RSS Feed it means that there is a RSS newsfeed link available to you to stay up-to-date when the latest news. There are many feeds available particularly from bloggers and content management systems. Organisations that care about broadcasting changes will use RSS. So, click on the orange symbol and it will give you XML link similar to the one below.
 
The Consoltis Blog RSS feed
 
http://www.consoltis.com/rss/25/50/41/8b44c538d569216e2b520038555e9964.xml
 
To use the feed, you need a Reader. I use Google's RSS Reader (http://www.google.com/reader). It's free and have subscribed to many sites that interest me both from a business and personal perspective ie. changes to google, marketing sites, Search Engine Optimisation, Andy's Murray's tennis blog etc ..
 
All you do is take a copy of the XML feed (like the Consoltis Blog ) and then add a subscription for each link. You'll soon build up a very powerful list of information you can use everyday.
 

Benefits

  • Information comes to you
  • You can look at the changes other organisations and people have made any time you like
  • The RSS Reader works a bit like email and keeps track of the pages you've not seen
  • You can access the RSS reader from any device including you're mobile phone
  • Saves you time and keeps you in touch

 

 
Make a comment

By Charlotte Britton16 Jan 10   
I use Google reader and it makes it a lot easier to read blogs. In fact I share some of the articles with some of my contacts.

I also have Google reader set up on my Blackberry. So if I'm on a bus or train I can catch up on the blogs, rather than reading the metro!

 

By Sue Schoormans3 Feb 10   
Thanks for the introduction to RSS Reader Andrew. Saves so much time which of course saves money. Fantastic. Try it, why don't you?

 


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Watch out for the missing RSS Feed links

5 January 2010

Just something to watch out for. I wanted to link to Charlotte Britton's blog via the RSS Feed and put it into the Google reader, but I couldn't find the icon. It turns out I was using Chrome and the RSS Icon wasn't in the usual place.

Charlotte is an expert in Social Media trends and Marketing based in Yorkshire. Take a look at her website: www.charlottebritton.co.uk

Mozilla Firefox

Charlotte Britton website via Mozilla Firefox

 

Same view in Chrome  (without the RSS Feed icon)

Charlotte Britton website in Chrome

 
Make a comment

By Bob North14 Jan 10   
I think this goes to show that you shouldn't rely on the browser to provide the links to RSS feeds, but you should embed them within the body of your webpage.

Not only will this give you more control over the appearance, but it will allow you to offer multiple feeds, and clearly explain what they are for: whilst RSS feeds aren't exactly new, many people are not aware of what they are, and will overlook subtle icons in the browser toolbars.

 


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