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Don’t know what an RSS feed is? No worries! Today Tim Lenahan will tell you what an RSS feed is and how to use it.

By Tim Lenahan

OK, so you’ve been around the Internet enough and you read enough blogs and news sites that you’ve seen the infamous RSS feed icons and links. The issue is that you’ve never stopped long enough to take the time to figure out what they’re all about or how to use them. Let’s break it down to the most basic terms so you, too, can make use of this technology.

Definition

RSS, broken down into simplest terms, stands for “Really Simple Syndication.” Basically for websites that are consistently publishing information can use the technology called “RSS” to make it easier for readers to find the newly published content.

Its purpose

As eluded to above, the purpose of RSS is to make the process of delivering content to the reader. For instance, if you have a blog or news site you enjoy reading the content from each day, you can visit the site each day to see if there is new information to read. If you keep up with several sites in this manner it can become time consuming.

RSS makes it possible for the publisher to “syndicate” the new content and let you know when they updated the site. Now you can “subscribe” to multiple “feeds” and have that content sent to you. You save time by not having to visit every site each day because all of your information comes to you in one place.

Tools needed

The tools needed to subscribe to an RSS feed depends on where you want to receive the updates. Most of the time you have two choices when it comes to subscribing to a feed: email updates or getting updates in a “feed reader.”

A feed reader is a program that allows you to subscribe to the content you like and have it ready to be read all in one place. For instance, if you use Google Reader you will have a whole stream of updates from all of the sites you’ve subscribed to in chronological order. You can also choose to read them site by site.

The purpose of using a feed reader as apposed to just receiving email updates is that it will free up your email inbox while giving you all of your content in one convenient place. Still, some still prefer the email updates so they don’t have to venture from their inbox when they’re catching up on things.

There you have it. You don’t have the excuse anymore that you don’t have the time to keep up with your reading. RSS helps solve that problem.

Bio: Tim Lenahan is a youth pastor who also happens to be the tech-savvy blogger over at timmyjohnboy.com where he MOSTLY talks tech. He has proven himself to be an authority when it comes to teaching others about computers and the Internet. Check out his blog for tech tips, tricks and advice along with his other musings.

Tim Lenahan- Check out Timmyjohnboy.com and subscribe to the Newsletter

Follow Tim on Twitter: @timmyjohnboy

              

Related Post:

• – How to Add an RSS Feed on Blogger
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  – Tips for Promoting Your RSS Feed
  – Selecting An RSS Reader Or News Aggregator
  – Listen Up: Podcasting Primer for Bloggers
  

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<a href="http://www.bloggertalk.net/2010/11/13/what-is-rss-and-how-to-use-it/">What is RSS and how to use it</a> 3 Comments