I’ve briefly talked about RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds in the past—mostly how they relate to publishing blogs and podcasts. But, did you know you can harness the power of RSS to deliver web content to you in a way that makes it more personal?

Really Simple Syndication is a web feed format used for Web syndication. RSS is used by (among other things) news websites, weblogs, and podcasting.

Web feeds provide content or summaries of content together with links to the full versions of the content and other metadata. RSS delivers this information as an XML file called an RSS feed, web feed, RSS stream, or RSS channel.

In addition to facilitating syndication, web feeds allow a website's frequent readers to track updates on the site using an aggregator.

Aggregators

Aggregators help to reduce the amount of time and effort that is needed to regularly check websites of interest for updates. Basically the aggregator creates a unique information channel, sort of like your own “personal newspaper.”

How It All Works

All you do is enter the web address of feeds you are interested in into an aggregator and it goes out and grabs fresh content for you. The aggregator grabs only the content you want—creating your own personal content channel.

The process is pretty simple. Next time you’re on a news site, look for a small orange-colored XML badge and that will reveal the RSS feed for the content you are viewing. Enter this address into your favorite aggregator—mine is FeedReader, available for free at www.FeedReader.com.

Give it a try by going to “Ask Joe” online—you’ll find my feed there. There best part is that once you are subscribed you simply sit back and enjoy new content whenever it is published.

Links

FeedReader: http://www.FeedReader.com/

Have a computer or technology-related question for Joe? Write:

Ask Joe
The Erickson Tribune 
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Baltimore MD  21228