What Is RSS

February 19, 2008

What is RSS?

You might have seen this little icon around the web and wondered, “What’s that?” It’s RSS, and I am going to give you a little tutorial on what it means and how to use it!

Imagine This

You have 10 or so websites and blogs that you love, and you have them bookmarked. You check them almost everyday to see the latest posts.As you discover more sites, you continually add to your bookmarks, and before you know it, your “Baby Tips” folder has 50 sites listed in it. Who wants to open all of those sites everyday? Enter RSS.

Alright Stop, Collaborate and List-en

RSS was designed to help you get through this mess. Today, blogs and websites publish what is known as an ‘RSS feed’ on their site. Think of it as a minimalist announcement that says “Here are the latest posts.” Every time a blogger posts a new story, the feed gets updated automatically. All you have to do to get in on this action is subscribe to the feed in something called a ‘feed reader.’ My favorite is Google Reader. Once you set up an account, you simply paste the URL of the feed into the feed reader, and it does the rest.

Where Do I Get This Feed?

For this site, the feed is at:

http://www.ShootTheBaby.com/feed/rss/

Click that link and you’ll see what the feed looks like! Now, just copy the link, go to Google Reader, and click ‘Add Subscription’. Then paste the link in and you’re done!

Or, you can simply click the “Subscribe” bar in the upper-right of this page, and a new window will appear to get you subscribed.

Ok I Added Your Feed, But How Does This Help?

Once you’ve subscribed to the feeds in Google Reader, Google will collect all the posts and consolidate everything in one window, so you have easy access to all of the latest posts from your favorite sites! Google Reader will show you the story and you can click through to the website if you prefer.

Cool! How Do I Find The Feed At My Favorite Site?

Visit the site and look for something like “RSS” or “Subscribe in a reader”. That will link you directly to the feed. Some links (like ours on the right side of our homepage) will actually add it to Google Reader directly for you, saving you a few steps.So give RSS and Google Reader a try - I am pretty sure you will become addicted rather quickly!