There are many disadvantages to getting fresh content this way. With blogs, one, you miss the chance to comment on the blog (about which I will talk later) when it is fresh and have people involved and talk about it. Two, you might forget for a while and when you get back there might be one too many articles to read. Compound this with some more blogs, and you got yourself a lot of missed articles.
The same thing with news. Most of us go to our favourite news site and read the headlines. We scan through headlines page after page, section after section, and if we find it interesting, we proceed to read the article. All this takes a lot of time, which is why we are forced to stay with one or maybe a few news site.
Tada, there has been something thats been conjured just for your. Syndication. The technology available to us are various implementations. e.g. RSS, Atom. Instead of me explaining it, I found a video made by commoncraft called RSS in plain english. I highly recommend checking it out.
Now you may ask what do I use, RSS or Atom? Both are ok, but if you are given a choice choose Atom. Atom is an open standard whereas RSS is not and has begun stagnating. Moreoever Atom is fast gaining popularity. But for most cases Feed readers support both so you don't have to worry about choosing one or the other.
Ok, now that you know about RSS/Atom feeds, how do I get them, and after I get them, how do I read them. There are many ways to get them. Some are explained in the video below. It also explains how to use Google Reader which is what I use for reading feeds. Its also by far the most popular. You need an account with google for which you will be offered an option. There will also be a link "Take a tour", I encourage you to check it out too.
Once you have subscribed to the feeds you want to read, you can organise them into folders by clicking "Manage Subscriptions" in the bottom left. Its just like putting your mail in different folders. Just go to http://reader.google.com to start using it.
So lets say you come across a new blog or a news website and you want to add it to your Google Reader. If you use Firefox, then in the right corner of your adress bar you will see a orange icon.
If you see that icon that means that site has a RSS/Atom Feed. Click on it, and you will see either "Subscribe to RSS feed" or "Subscribe to Atom feed" or both. click on Atom feed. You will be redirected to another page. I use Linux, so I dont have a description of how Internet Explorer 7, or Safari will behave. I presume they do something similar. Anyway, copy the link from the address bar. In your Google Reader or any other reader, click Add Subscription and paste that link and click Add or Ok or whatever. If you are using Google Reader, it fetches recent content from the site and will present it to you in the right pane. You can assign this new feed to a folder by selecting one of the folders from the "Folder Settings". Also, you can view the articles either as a list or expanded. You can change it by choosing one(above the right pane on the right side).
I think you are all set. One word of advice, initially you will feel overwhelmed at the amount of content presented to you. Dont worry, its normal, and believe me you will get used to it. What I did was, used the "list" view, and would do a quick scan of the headlines, if I find it interesting, then I click on it to read the synopsis, if I am still interested I click the title which opens the article in a new window.
For those who are interested, you will find my Google Reader's shared items in the Links section on the right hand side. It is a feed. You can add it to your reader and you can read what I find interesting. If you have one already, please feel free to share.
Also if you are not interested in this whole reading feeds and feel it is a tad too much, I have a "Subscribe by email" link on the right hand side. Most other blogs and news sites have it too. What it does it will send you an email everyday, only if there are new posts.
This is my first attempt at writing a tutorial. Let me know if you have any comments on how I can improve.
4 comments:
I think its one thing to understand such stuff but a bigger one to explain this in a language that makes it seem very simple....at least for a person like me.....have you ever considered becoming a teacher or a writer :-)
Not sure about that :). Glad you liked the post.
Hmm... good start i wud say. So you are an ardent fan of Google or is it just tht your dislike for Microsoft... ;-) I just started using Google reader and liked it.
Its a bit of both. Google does provide me with quality service and they are more open that MS will ever be. I do understand that by using a lot of their services, I am trusting them a little too much. I guess thats a risk I am willing to take right now.
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