RSS feed--what is it?
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Original Post
I see the RSS on many sites, including in my shop.
What is its purpose? and How is it used?
Thank you
Posted at 1:22pm Jan 5, 2008 EST
Responses
RDF Site Summary
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_(file_format)
You can use a program such as Google Reader (online) or BlogLines to subscribe to individual feeds. It is very useful to have an RSS feed for each shop because it means I will be alerted whenever something changes in that particular shop.
I use RSS feed readers to keep track of my favourite websites; it's now pretty uncommon for a site NOT to have RSS feeds available for its users!
It's like constant and immediate updates; direct to the computer. =)
I <3 RSS.
Hope that helps!
Posted at 1:26pm Jan 5, 2008 EST
so, do you click on it? Then what?
Excuse my ignorance--:)
Posted at 1:29pm Jan 5, 2008 EST
I have RSS Feeds all over the place too...from my blog, IndiePublic...etc.
But do people really read them? I suppose I just haven't adopted the practice of subscribing or looking at them as part of my daily, computer routine.
Posted at 1:31pm Jan 5, 2008 EST
Wow! Bunny, very kool shop!
waitng for more info on this--up, up
Posted at 1:34pm Jan 5, 2008 EST
Thanks Mystic! :)
So you click on the rss tab, then what happens?
Oooh, i might go click on one to see!
Posted at 1:35pm Jan 5, 2008 EST
Would love to know more. I feel so ignorant about all this. Where have I been?
Posted at 1:35pm Jan 5, 2008 EST
I use bloglines and I love it. Instead of checking for updates, your reader tells you when your subscribed blogs have been updated.
Now, if only I could find out how many people subscribe to my blog. On bloglines you can check, but that doesn't tell you how many people subscribe using other readers, like google, etc. Does anyone know a way?
Posted at 1:40pm Jan 5, 2008 EST
Lots of times, you copy and paste the url of the rss feed and then put it into something like google reader.
For example, this is the direct rss feed from ars technica's gear and gadgets section:
arstechnica.com/gadgets.rssx
Depending on which browser you use, you may be presented with options to subscribe to the feed right there (i.e. live bookmarks if you're using firefox), or you can cut and paste the url for the feed into another reading service (i.e. google reader, my yahoo, etc), usually by selecting an option that says "subscribe" or something similar. Then essentially it's almost like getting email, in that the feed service is updated whenever a new article or item is put into the system, except instead of outlook or gmail, you'd go to google reader to see the update (although I'm sure outlook has an rss option as well).
RSS feed readers have lots of options on how you're notified, and how the content looks. I kinda like google reader for web based, and there are programs that run on the desktop that are nice as well (if you don't want to use a browser to read your feeds)
It's a little daunting at first, but with customization you can do some pretty cool stuff with rss feeds.
Posted at 1:41pm Jan 5, 2008 EST