Bizhack.net

Despite the popularity and frequency of RSS feeds on the internet today, there is still a large number of people who have no idea what they are, nor an understanding of the benefits of their use. One of the most frequent questions we get at Bizhack.net are about how to use them and why. So, without further ado, a layman’s guide to RSS Feeds!

RSS is commonly understood to stand for “Really Simple Syndication” and it is, in essence, a format for delivering regularly updated information on the internet. There are hundreds of thousands of RSS feeds on the internet today as most websites and blogs publish their own RSS feeds (Bizhack.net included). These feeds serve to keep those who subscribe to them abreast of all updates to the site.

You can look at an RSS feed as being a specific type of webpage, updating alongside its main website, and specifically designed to be read using a feed reader. A feed reader can check multiple RSS feeds simultaneously, therefore allowing you to read updates from many different websites and blogs in one place.
So, you choose a feed reeder, you tell it which website feeds you want to read, and it will check them all at regular intervals allowing you read all the updates as they occur. The main benefit of this is obvious, it is a huge time saver. For those of you who regularly check a multitude of websites everyday, you can achieve the same effect by using a single feed reader and therefore removing the need to check each and every website individually. Another benefit is privacy, as you can subscribe without supplying email addresses or other personal information.

In a business setting, RSS feeds can be vital for keeping up to date with industry news as well as keeping an eye on competitors. They can help employees keep up to date with developments in their own company too! Companies can use RSS Feeds on their own websites to improve corporate communication and increase their external exposure and brand appeal.  If you do not have an RSS feed on your website already, it is highly recommended that you get one. Feedburner is a favorite (and free) service allowing you to “burn” your own feed as well as keep track of how many subscribers you have.

There are countless numbers of feed readers on offer and they commonly take two forms. Program based and web based. As with email clients, both have their advantages and disadvantages. In today’s portability-obsessed world, web readers are very popular as they allow the individual to check their feeds on any computer with an internet connection.

Popular web based Readers:

• Google Reader - A simple, elegant and powerful offering from Google. Also easily accessible fom a mobile phone.
  
• Bloglines - A major player on the market and very popular with the geek purist
• Newsgator Online - From the RSS giant that also provides a program version, Outlook integration and mobile phone compatibility.
• Netvibes - Looks more like a personal page with an RSS flavour and allows you to customise that page with gadgets such as weather, Ebay and Facebook updates. For a similar service see iGoogle.
• Pageflakes - Recently acquired by Live Universe.
• Yahoo - perhaps the biggest web RSS provider on the internet today. Also provides RSS within Yahoo Webmail. In true Yahoo style, it lacks the simplicity of it competitors.

Popular Reader Programs

• Web browsers - Firefox, IE7 and Opera all have inbuilt feed reeders.
• Desktop Email clients - Outlook 2007 and Thunderbird are the main contenders.
• Feedreader - Simple and elegant
• Shrook - Mac compatible
• Feedemon - Windows compatible provided by Newsgator.
• NetNewsWire - One of the more popular Mac Readers provided by Newsgator.
• NewsFire - Another Mac reader, similar to NetNewsWire but arguably less bloated
• Liferea - For Linux
• Sage Extention - Firefox extension compatible with the portable version of Firefox. Adds many customisable features.

So there you have it, next time you are surfing the web, simply look for the orange RSS icon (or any similar variation of it). Clicking on it will bring up a list of feed readers, simply choose the reader that you use in order to subscribe. Happy reading!