For a while now, I’ve been brewing some ideas on how to better improve the social media world. As somebody who’s in the trenches every day using social media tools and sites, and trying to adapt to the habits of ever-changing content integration, I fancy myself a bit of of a guru. After all, I totally ditched Myspace before it was cool.

A Blog Integrated, Feed Reading Plug-In has been something I’ve wanted since the inception of feed readers. Back when NewsGator was the shit, and Google Reader hadn’t yet hit the web, sites were still relativity new to the idea of feeds. That meant having a feed reader wasn’t always ideal from having a folder full of bookmarks, because you still have to visit most sites directly. But now, feeds are almost guaranteed for even the most basic websites. Webcomics, personal blogs, they can all be routed into feed readers making your day a whole-hell-of-a-lot quicker, and more efficient.

But feed readers didn’t kill the need to visit some sites directly, which puts you at odds if you’re reading the content of a site that you’ve subscribed to, on the site, and not in your reader. Which is why I had the idea of developing a plug-in for sites that deliver feed-optional content, that would directly update your feed-reader if you’ve read the content on a site. If I go to BoingBoing and read their articles for two hours,

I want that reflected in my feed reader automatically (I’d even go as far as check-marking a box at the bottom of a website’s post) so I don’t have to click “mark all as read” and throw off my user statistics.

You could even take this one-step further, by having a plug-in to mark each entry on a site’s feed with a code that could be used by multiple sites like Tumblr, Facebook AND Google Reader to mark the content as having already been shared, thus removing it from the streams of the other sites. (ie: If read it on Google Reader, that post doesn’t show up on Tumblr or Facebook, unless noted with the comments of a friend)

One-click Feed Reading would also be super nice to bring feed-readers into a more modern era. I mean, this is a really minor thing, but when I want to subscribe to a site, I have to find the orange icon, usually specify the type of feed I want -RSS or ATOM on old blogs- then which feed reader -Google by default- and finally one more time when I’m actually in my feed reader. It just seems like, if we can make ads that let you make full purchases in a side-bar, then we can make a button that skips all the options, and uses default settings to just make it happen.

Alright web-developers, programmers and designers, getting cracking, these ideas aren’t going to manifest themselves into revolutionary new tools.

I had a very vague idea of what are feeds, but I had never used any. This is my first attemps at understanding the funda of Feeds.

You see that two small orange icons in top right corner of my blog. Those are Feeds .. RSS to be precise. RSS stands for (Rich Site Summary).

Oky So what is an RSS Feed?

I see “RSS”, “XML”, and “Atom” out there, but I don’t know how I might use these links when I find them.

Technically — > RSS (Rich Site Summary) is a format for delivering regularly changing web content. Many news-related sites, weblogs and other online publishers syndicate their content as an RSS Feed to whoever wants it.

Non Technically —-> Feeds are a way for websites large and small to distribute their content well beyond just visitors using browsers. Feeds permitsubscription to regular updates, delivered automatically via a web portal, news reader, or in some cases good old email. Feeds also make it possible for site content to be packaged into “widgets,” “gadgets,” mobile devices, and other bite-sized technologies that make it possible to display blogs, podcasts, and major news/sports/weather/whatever headlines just about anywhere.

Links labeled “XML” or “RSS” or “Atom” are ways of saying that you can find out about updates to              that site without having to visit the site in your web browser.These icons represent content in any                format – text, audio or video – to which you can subscribe and read/watch/listen using a feed reader.

This feature is referred to as “syndication” or “aggregation”. Sometimes it’s just called subscribing. And          these days, instead of one of these words, lots of sites will use a little orange button. The standard one            looks like this:  It’s also common to see buttons that say “RSS” or “XML”, which looks like this: 

Who Publishes Feeds?

Anyone that publishes on the web can publish a feed. Blogs (or weblogs) were one of the first types of sites to offer feeds, Besides this Most of the biggest names on the web offer content feeds including major newspapers and news websites  like USATODAY.com, BBC News Headlines, ABCNews, hobbyist sites, and even stores like CNET, Yahoo!,Amazon.com (including a podcast!).

How do I read feeds?

Just like when you want to watch a video clip or listen to music on the web, you need a “player” of some kind to subscribe to feeds. Good news: Most of these tools are free, and there are many to choose from, so you can find the one that best suits you.

The “player” for a feed is called a feed reader. This tool lets you subscribe to any feeds you want, checks automatically to see when they’re updated, and then displays the updates for you as they arrive.

Feed readers can run on your computer or you can sign up to use a feed-reader that runs on the web. If you use one of the web-based readers, you can access your feeds from anywhere you go, just by signing into the website that manages your feeds. If you use a feed reading program that installs on your computer, your feeds can be stored for you even if you’re not connected to the Internet.

A typical interface for a feed reader will display your feeds and the number of new (unread) entries within each of those feeds. You can also organize your feeds into categories and even clip and save your favorite entries (with certain applications).

What Feed Reader Should I Use?

Here’s a list some of the most popular tools

On the web: If you don’t want to have to install a program, many people choose My Yahoo!, Google Personalized Homepage, My MSN, or My AOL to read feeds right within the home page that their browser starts in. Other providers of web-based feed readers include Rojo. Bloglines, Attensa Online, or NewsGator Online. All of the web-based services are free.

On your computer: If you want a feed reading program that runs on your own computer, there are a few options. Anyone using the Mozilla Firefoxweb browser has support for feeds built-in, and Microsoft Windows users have support for feeds in Internet Explorer 7. Apple Macintosh users can also use the built-in support for feeds in the Safari web browser.

If you want a separate program to read feeds a variety of RSS Readers are available for different platforms. Some popular feed readers include Amphetadesk (Windows, Linux, Mac), FeedReader (Windows), and NewsGator (Windows – integrates with Outlook).If you’re on a Macintosh running OS X, the most popular feed reader is NetNewsWire, which can also connect to the web-based services.

Subscribing to Feeds

Once you’ve got a tool to read feeds, you’ll want to find some feeds worth reading. Many of the tools listed above provide some built-in feeds to get you started. Then, as you visit other sites on the web, you can keep your eyes open for links that say XML or RSS or Syndication, or for that orange button up above, and add the feeds you find interesting.

Publishing a Feed

If you’re taken by the convenience and power of being able to deliver information regularly right to the screens of anyone who’s interested, you might want to publish your own feed. The good news is, it’s surprisingly easy.

If you have a website, blog, audio/video content, or even photos, you can offer a feed of your content as an option. If you are using a popular blogging platform or publishing tool like TypePad, WordPress, or Blogger, you likely publish a feed automatically. Even other non-blogging sites like social photo-sharing service Flickr offer feeds of content you produce that others can retrieve. There are also tools on the market that can help transform traditional web content into the right format for distribution.

Why is This a Good Thing?

Technology evolution in online publishing has made it really easy to not only publish regular updates to web-based content, but also keep track of a large number of your favorite websites or blogs, without having to remember to check each site manually or clutter your email inbox. You can now streamline your online experience by subscribing to specific content feeds and aggregating this information in one place to be read when you’re ready.

• Consumer Bottom Line: Subscribing to feeds makes it possible to review a large amount of online content in a very short time.
• Publisher Bottom Line: Feeds permit instant distribution of content and the ability to make it “subscribable.”
• Advertiser Bottom Line: Advertising in feeds overcomes many of the shortcomings that traditional marketing channels encounter including spam filters, delayed distribution, search engine rankings, and general inbox noise.

Our blogroll is growing and we will have more next month (see end of post)!

Because of the main focus of eQuipping for eMinistry, the majority of the blogs listed in the Blogroll are posted exclusively by Campus Crusade staff women who use blogs for ministry.  These women will encourage you to draw closer to God, guide you in using hospitality to share the love of Christ, give practical advice for moms serving overseas, paint a fresh perspective on life, offer a taste of life in another country, and more.  Visiting and commenting on some of the blogs (see right sidebar) will help increase traffic for our bloggers and also encourage them in their ministry.

GSW Reader

The Global Staff Women’s Reader is like a monthly “online newspaper” with selections only from this Blogroll.  During the first week of every month, we select a handful of posts from the different blogs.  Each month features different blogs and  subjects.  You can use RSS feed for the GSW Reader or use  Blog Alert to have emails sent automatically to your eAddress when the GSW Reader is updated.

If you are considering blogging and want to see a sample of various ministry blogs, or you would simply enjoy reading a selection of posts from the Blogroll, click here.

A BIG Thank You

Thank you to our new editor for the Global Staff Women’s Reader, Susie Thomas!   Susie just posted the GSW Reader for October.  Thank you, Susie!

Susie has been on staff with Athletes in Action since 2002. She chases her kids around the house and her husband around the world. She is also on a paper chase to Rwanda, where she is in the process of adopting a baby.

Susie Thomas blogs at Susie Here Only.

NOTE: If you know of other Campus Crusade for Christ women who have blogs or web sites, comment here or send an email to GlobalStaffWomen at gmail.com.

I use google reader to read most of the RSS feeds that I subscribe to. Last week I got hooked on to twitter and am now following few friends and few other people who tweet interesting stuff. Now here is my problem.

Most of the tweets are not simple sentences. They are usually a few words followed by a small url (from bit.ly or tinyurl or some other url shortener). To be able to read the stuff I need to open the browser and read through the article. I may or may not like the article. So, sometimes I end up spending time reading atleast 10-15% of the article which I might not like.

What I need is an intelligent feed reader which can parse my RSS subscriptions and twitter feed and provide me a summarized view of the stuff. It should also have a way of recording my likes or dislikes for the article that I read. Over a period of time it would have a fair amount of idea of whether I would like an article or not and prioritize the display of the feeds based on my interests.

Not sure if someone is already making such a tool or if such a tool already exists.

Nachdem gestern abend lähmende Stille meinen Feedreader befiel, scheinen endlich ein paar Blogger die Schockstarre überstanden zu haben:

“Tja, dass dies ein Abend der guten Laune wird, damit hat wohl auch niemand gerechnet.”
(Fefe)

“Ich befürchte verlängerte AKW-Laufzeiten, eine neoliberale Vettern- und Wirtschaftspolitik, welche die Krise nur noch vergrößern wird, eine noch weiter auseinandergehende Schere zwischen Arm und Reich und den Ausbau des Überwachungsstaates.”
(Johnny Haeusler, Spreeblick)

“Ansonsten ist nun eine der möglichen Koalitionen des Schreckens an der Macht. Mal sehen, wieviel in vier Jahren von den noch verbliebenen Bürger- und Freiheitsrechten und vom Datenschutz noch übrig ist, während sich Lobbyisten und Banken über einen vergoldeten Enddarm freuen dürfen.”
(Dyfustifications)

“Deutschland war mir auch schonmal sympathischer.  Zum Beispiel vor dieser Bundestagswahl.”
(Gorgmorg)

“Ich hab geheult … als ich die Wahlergebnisse gesehen habe. Wirklich. Denn ich hab richtig Schiss vor dem, was jetzt kommt.”
(Lilienfeuer)

Dass die Autoren der Blogs, die ich bevorzugt lese, das Wahlergebnis mehrheitlich nicht gutheißen, liegt in der Natur der Sache, daher schlagen die Zitate die gleiche Richtung ein. Die zahlreichen professionellen Online-Medien habe ich bewußt vernachlässigt.

Of hoe FeedDemon zichzelf bij mij de nek omwringt. Ik ben heel lang heel enthousiast geweest over FeedDemon, in die mate zelfs dat ik ervoor wilde betalen, en ervoor betaald heb. Toen ging FeedDemon over naar Newsgator. Geen probleem, alles bleef hetzelfde. Een tijdje geleden werd FeedDemon dan opeens gratis. Mwah, geen probleem, goh ja, ik heb ervoor betaald, maar ik ga daar niet moeilijk over doen. Dit in tegenstelling tot vele anderen, mocht ik lezen op de weblog van FeedDemon-maker Nick Bradbury. Toen werd er geëxperimenteerd. Kwam er een reclameblokje in FeedDemon. Toen werd een gevraagd om een betalende versie (opnieuw), zonder reclameblokje. Zag ik eigelijk ook wel zitten. Toen werd er langs alle kanten gereorganiseerd bij Newsgator, en zouden ze de synchronisatie stopzetten. Waarop overgeschakeld werd naar synchronisatie via Google Reader. Mja, waarom niet. Overgeschakeld, en man man wat ging dat opeens snel. Geen eeuwigheden om te synchroniseren langs alle kanten, supersnel. Cool. Maar om te synchroniseren via Google Reader, moest je die Google Reader wel gaan instellen. Dus was ik even gepasseerd via Google Reader, en tiens, dat zag er toch wel leuk uit nu. Nog eens gepasseerd. En nog eens. En er nog eens gaan lezen. En nog eens. En raad eens? Pffffff. Ik lees nu zo goed als altijd mijn feeds via Google Reader, en FeedDemon heeft na vele jaren een heel klein beetje afgedaan bij mij. ‘t Zijn toeren. Hij heeft er zelf om gevraagd, meneer Bradbury.

Is It working?

Here’s what the <cloud> element in my feed says:

<cloud domain=”rpc.rsscloud.org” port=”5337″ path=”/rsscloud/pleaseNotify” registerProcedure=”" protocol=”http-post” />

What this means, in English is: “To request notification of updates for this feed, do an HTTP POST to:

http://rpc.rsscloud.org:5337/rsscloud/pleaseNotify

When you POST to that address, supply these parameters:

1. notifyProcedure (must be there, only relevant if protocol is xml-rpc or soap)

2. port

3. path

4. protocol — either xml-rpc, soap or http-post

5. url1, url2, url3 … urlN — one or more URLs of feeds that you wish to be notified about

Notifications are sent to the IP address the request came from. You can not request notification on behalf of another server.

It returns an XML response called notifyResult with two attributes: success is true or false, which indicates whether we registered a notification on your behalf, and msg which explains what happened.

Note: Credit for the url numbering scheme goes to FriendFeed. I saw this in their API, and thought it was a good workaround to the fact that HTTP doesn’t have a list type.

mmmmmm I’m thinking this is so time consuming so much crap to wade through. Then I subsribe to things like a book club and a vegetable growing blog . I look at technocrati? not really interested .  Thought the utube explanation was great . Think I will subscribe to some blogs re ESL esp EAP.

I have been waiting for a decent way to sync my feeds to the desktop from Google Reader, whilst still being able to keep up with them out and about.

My only problem with this so far is that I forgot I already had NNW installed, and my two sets of feeds have merged somewhat. It’ll take a while to sort, but I have a feeling it will be worth it.

Card.ly gives you a really easy way to create an online business card containing links to all of your online profiles.  Card.ly doesn’t stop there though – you can also add contact information, an ‘about me’ section, and RSS feeds.

When you sign up, you’ll select a custom URL.  Mine is www.card.ly/molly.  You can then add your usernames for the various social networking sites you belong to like Digg, Twitter, Flickr, and Facebook.  The next step is to create your ‘about me’ section and then add as much, or as little, contact information as you want shown.  You can add your personal Website, your address, phone numbers, and IM usernames.  Lastly, select your design and your page will be set and ready to go.

There is a free account (which is what I used for this screencast) and a paid-for subscription option.  Paid accounts get access to more themes, they’re ad-free, and you can use a custom domain.

To see Card.ly in action, watch the screencast below (best viewed in HD in full screen):

Guzzle.it is a type of news feed dashboard that allows you to select specific topics that interest you, and create a page filled with articles and images about those topics.

You don’t need to sign up for anything in order to get started.  Just select a bunch of topics that you want to read about – I chose screencast, Camtasia, running, vegetarian, NIN, and Social Media.  Those topics aren’t really related, but that’s OK because you can create separators and drag and drop various topics underneath the appropriate section.  When you’re all through customizing your content you can create your page.

You can easily switch to an image view for each of the topics and remove them any time you need a change.  After you create your page, you have the option of saving it by creating an account.

To see Guzzle.it in action, watch the screencast below (best viewed in HD in full screen):

[Thanks for the tip, Paisano!]

Sei que vou falar de algo que não é novidade, mais como para mim foi, quem sabe para mais pessoas também não é ..

Eu tenho vários blogs adicionados ao meu favoritos, mais últimamente meu laptop não tem estado comigo e sempre ficava me lembrando de todos eles, buscava-os pelo google e lia.. um traaaaaaabaaaaalho !!

Sempre que pensava em um reader eu achava que o cara ia ficar me avisando sempre que um post novo subisse, via email, imagina como não ia ficar minha caixa de entrada !! Só um dos blogs,  tem uma média de 60 posts por dia !!!

Escolhi o google reader e resolvi fazer um teste e tenho que dizer é fenomenal !!!! Você usa sua conta no google (a mesma que a do orkut/picasa, etc), cadastra os endereços e toda vez que entra BUMMMMMMM ele já te diz quais blogs foram atualizados, quantos posts novos e a medida que você lê, ele reconhece e zera a sua lista …

Como diz um grande amigo meu …

Não é feitiçaria é TECNOLOGIA !!!  rs ..

Bjs,

feed چیست ؟

RSS یک خروجی XML و مخفف Really Simple Syndication هستش . این خروجی به ما این امکان رو می ده که توسط آر اس اس ریدرس (RSS Readers) یا خبر خوان ها محتویات یک سایت (متن ها ، تیتر ها ، عکس های درون مطالب و …) رو مشاهده کنید ، بدون اینکه آدرس سایت رو داخل نوار آدرس مرورگر وارد کنید ، بدین ترتیب که نرم افزاز مربوطه رو دانلود می کنید و جدیدترین نوشته ها و مطالب چندین سایت رو با بیشترین سرعت ممکن مرور می کنید !

علت اینکه به سرعت می شه بدون مراجعه به سایت ؛ آخرین مطالب وبلاگها و وب سایت ها رو دید اینه که این نرم افزار ها اشیاء اضافی ؛ مثل کدهای جاوا اسکریپت ، عکسهای جانبی ، قالب سایت و … رو لود نمی کنه و فقط و فقط اصل موضوع یعنی جدید ترین مطالب سایت رو نمایش می ده . لازم به ذکره که نرم افزارهای آر اس اس خوان در انواع مخصوص سیستم عامل و تحت وب هستند و هر کدوم امکانات خاصی مثل دسته بندی مطالب سایت ها و محبوب ترین ها و قدیمی و جدید و خوانده شده و … رو دارا هستن .

همچنین بعضی از مرورگرهای وب نیز مجهز به این سیستم هستند . برای استفاده از این برنامه ها کافیه که آدرس RSS یا feed مربوطه رو کپی و به عنوان یک feed به درون این برنامه ها انتقال بدید . (دنبال کلمانی مثل Add subscription یا Add feed بگردید) آدرس Feed وبلاگ من اینه http://iranianfunblog.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default این رو اگه در قسمت Feed Address برنامه ای که ازش استفاده میکنین وارد کنین هر وقت وبلاگم به روز شد به شما خبر میده و میتونین مطالب وبلاگ رو بخونین.

برای دانلود Feed Reader میتونین به سایتهای زیر مراجعه و این برنامه ها دانلود و مطالب وبلاگ ها و سایت ها رو بدون مراجعه به اونها بخونین.

1. Snarfer من از این برنامه برای خواندن مطالب سایت و وبلاگها استفاده میکنم استفاده میکنم در مقایسه با نمونه های مشابه خیلی سبکتره به شما هم پیشنهاد میکنم این برنامه رو دانلود کنید . برای دانلود اینجا (وب سایت اصلی برنامه)کلیک کنید.
2. Feed Demon برای دانلودش اینجا کلیک کنید.

3. Feedreader اینم برنامه خوبیه برای دانلودش اینجا کلیک کنید
   

4. rssreader برای دانلودش اینجا کلیک کنید
   

برنامه در این زمینه زیاد هستش اما این 4 تا که معرفی کردم معروف ترن.

Man, is it July 10th already? Okay, okay, for those of you who actually read my blog and have waited with baited breath upon the arrival of a new post, your dreams have come true. Yes, I know I have neglected this forum but sometimes life gets in the way; not to mention Facebook and Twitter. Get over it and follow me at the other places too.

Normally, once per month I single out a handful of my fellow bloggers and their work due to their amazing writing, their ability to make me think or cry or get pissed off. I think that works for me so I will stay with the norms. When I scanned my starred items from June in my feed reader I plucked out these gems:

Me + Booze x Internet Access = Not A Good Scene – Theology & Geometry

30 Rock Is A Rip-Off Of The Muppet Show! – Brian Lynch

Requiem – Newscoma

How Do I Tell? – Shipment Of Fail

An Appreciation, After The Cascade, Of Patty Griffin – Salem’s Lots

Alrighty then. Go read these amazing bloggers and the others on my blogroll. You won’t be disappointed. As I always mention, be sure to comment as they (not unlike myself) adore knowing that their thoughts are being read.

** I really need a clever title for this regular feature. Anyone have any ideas? Please let me know. Also, a nice badge with said title could be fancy, too. I am willing to accept assistance with that as well.

Alcuni dicono che nella vita, così come in qualsiasi professione, nulla è veramente indispensabile. Ma ciò vale sempre e comunque? Mi chiedo se in quest’era caratterizzata da un aumentato flusso informativo, si riesca ugualmente a tenersi aggiornati senza l’uso e la considerazione di “alcuni elementi chiave“? Domanda che mi scaturisce spontanea analizzando alcuni risultati del questionario sottoposto agli studenti.

Per quanto riguarda, ad esempio, l’apprendimento di notizie e quindi in qualche modo, i mezzi tramite cui tenersi aggiornati: radio e stampa hanno avuto percentuali davvero misere, la tv ha guadagnato un 30% ed il primato indiscusso è spettato ad Internet con una percentuale superiore al 48% (considerando che non sono pochi quelli che hanno indicato due opzioni).

Mi permetto però di dubitare della sincerità di queste risposte dato che la domanda successiva del questionario smentisce e contraddice questi risultati. Se il media maggiormente considerato per apprendere notizie è Internet, la logica conseguenza doveva essere che tutti, o almeno molti, utilizzassero un feed reader per ricevere gli aggiornamenti dai vari siti o blog.
Invece così non è!

Altro elemento che dovrebbe contraddistinguere chi si occupa di comunicazione in quest’era incentrata sulle relazioni, è la partecipazione ad incontri di socializzazione e knowledge sharing. Come possono questi studenti diventare degli efficienti comunicatori, se la maggior parte di loro non sa neanche che cos’è un BarCamp?

RSS Diagram

Mit Hilfe der RSS-Technologie (RSS = «Rich Site Summary» und «Really Simple Syndication») müssen die Web2.0-Nutzer_innen nicht mehr zu den Informationen kommen, sondern diese kommen zu ihnen.

Statt immer wieder die Webseiten zu besuchen, muss nur der RSS-Feed abonniert werden und schon fließen die Neuigkeiten. So können schneller und effektiver relevante Informationen erfasst werden.

Damit diese Informationen nun webbasiert (von jedem öffentlichem Internetzugang) systematisch empfangen werden können, ist es empfehlenswert kostenfreie Online-Feed-Reader zu nutzen, zum Beispiel:

• Bloglines
• Netvibes

  Auf der personaliserten und individuell gestalteten Netvibes-Seite können die Online-Informationen systematisch gegliedert und gelesen werden. Außerdem besteht auch hier die Möglichkeit sich zu vernetzen, und die eigene Netvibes-Seite anderen zugänglich zu machen: Virtuelle Genderbibliothek.

Publié via web from climenole’s posterous

Interesting take on the world of social media. An beta website featuring clients of Crispin Porter that searches Youtube, blogs, Twitter and then sticks the results all on one page.

To read this blog, you can click on the link from the Library’s page, or you can subscribe to it via an RSS feed.

An RSS feed sends the information to you via an aggregator or reader.  Basic information about RSS feeds can be found here_for_text or here_for_a_YouTube_video.    

To keep my life simple, I use Google Reader, although there are many others available on the web.  Before you can use Google Reader, create a Google Account.  Google provides great instructions on all of its products; click here for text information or here for another YouTube video.

FYI – This blog does not have an RSS ikon; click on ‘Entries (RSS)’  found at the bottom of the page to get started.

One word of warning – once you start subscribing to blogs, it can be addictive.  See you in the Blogosphere!

I just added an RSS feed link to my blog. Guests like you could subscribe to the feeds and they would know of all that I update here, without even visiting the blog’s homepage. Isn’t that interesting? Yeah I too thought so. In addition, I got curious to know how these RSS feeds worked. And I’m sure there are many of us out there who always wondered why the RSS icon appeared on many a web-page today, but never got a chance to find out what it meant really. So, here’s an article that demystifies RSS.

What is it?

Lets start with the abbreviation RSS – Really Simple Syndication. Well, we all quite know what ‘Really’ and ‘Simple’ meant, but what is Syndication? The WordWeb dictionary (my favorite) says:

Syndication – 1) Organizing into or administering as a syndicate. 2) Selling (read Sending) an article for publication to several newspapers or magazines at the same time.

That in all likelihood, made some sense. Did it not? If I publish this post on my blog, would all my RSS feed subscribers receive the article without visiting the blog? Looks like it. Lets explore further.

RSS feed is a standard format of publishing frequently-updated works such as – news articles, blog posts, scraps etc. The content usually circulated via feeds would be excerpts/summaries of new articles, links to new web pages or similar audio/visual media.

Okay! How does it work?

1. Content publishers provide a link or a URI (Uniform Resource Identifier, also called URL) on their websites. For example, the feed URI of my blog looks like this:  http://bharathreddyt.wordpress.com/feed/ and that of a CNN World business page looks like this: http://rss.cnn.com/rss/edition_business.rss

2. A user/subscriber needs an application called a Feed Reader/RSS Reader/Aggregator.
These applications would typically be:

• Web-based: Google Reader/iGoogle, My Yahoo
• Desktop-based:
  • Browsers like Mozilla Firefox, IE;
  • Applications like feedReader, MicrosoftMAX;
  • Email clients like IBM Lotus note, MS Outlook Express etc.
• Mobile-based: Google Mobile RSS reader, feedBurner etc.

3. Subscribers would have to supply a feed URI to the Feed reader. The feed reader would retrieve feed content and display.

So, What big deal?

1. No nonsense: Have you ever subscribed to news letters or updates from sites? Have you faced with problems like spam, viruses, phishing? The story doesn’t end here. When you register for subscriptions, you would have to leave your details of identity and mainly your email ID. This could lead to Identity theft. RSS feeds are a way out. You would not even have to provide your email ID. Its the content publishers that give us the feed link and its your feed reader application that get the feeds to you.

2. Unsubscribe Easily: Say, you’re not interested anymore in receiving updates/news form a certain subscription/source, you’d have to send an ‘unsubscribe’ email. And yet, you’re at the mercy of the sender. In case of an RSS subscription, to unsubscribe, you’d only have to remove the feed’s link from your feed reader. That’s that.

3. Feed reader applications generally have features to sort and group similar feeds. For example, say I subscribe for sports news from three different sites and stock updates from 5 different sites. I would have an option to sort them into two categories, say sports and stocks.

4. What more? Browsers these days have built in feed readers. I’ve seen them on Firefox and IE7. When users click on a feed link on a website, they’re taken to a page that displays the feeds for the site and the user is given an option to choose a feed reader of choice. (See the illustrations section below) The simplest way is to choose to save it as a book mark. A folder is created under bookmarks folder and it has links that the feed intends to circulate.

A Brief History

Started around 1995 by Ramanathan V. Guha, an Indian computer scientist while he was working with Apple. He was one of those who conceived the idea of collecting integrating published data and presenting. He developed RDF (Resource Description Framework) which was then the basis of RSS. After quite some fuss over the ownership of the technology, the copy right is currently owned by Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society. Its maintained by the RSS Advisory Board.

Though the technology of RSS feeds isn’t new – the RSS2.0 version was announced way back in 2002 – the usage became popular only recently. One of the earliest adopters of the RSS feed technology was Mozilla Firefox and it was followed by MS Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, Opera and several others.

Illustrations:

When I click on http://bharathreddyt.wordpress.com/feed/, I see a page like this:

After I subscribe to the feed on FireFox, I see a bookmark folder as this:

References:

http://www.whatisrss.com/

http://library.ucsc.edu/science/rss.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_feed

http://www.google.com/support/feedburner/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=79408