RSS is a technology that is being used by millions of web users around the world to keep track of their favorite websites and blogs. RSS stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication’. Many people describe it as a ‘newspaper’ that you subscribe to.
In the ‘old days’ of the Internet you had to ‘bookmark’ or save your favorite websites in your browser or favorites list. To keep track of updates on a website you had to manually return to them on a regular basis to see what had been added. This way of reviewing any new updates that you may have missed could become quite time consuming.
Here is a typical scenario, let’s say you visit a collection of 5websites three times a day, and two blogs that you follow. Currently, you visit them one by one by finding them in your bookmark or from off yours favorite list. Going through all 5 websites might take 3-4 minutes, and your favorite blog another 3-4 minutes or more if you find a new article. With RSS, all you do is click on your browsers RSS feed button and you will instantly know which websites or blogs have new articles and which don’t. If you were to only visit the website or blogs a couple of times a month, you could miss an article that really may interest you. RSS fits in perfectly with this scenario. Now, imagine if you wanted to keep tabs on 25 websites... RSS feed easily proves indispensable.
So, with your RSS feed button, you could tell a website, or your favorite blog site, to let you know every time they have updated information on their sites. In a sense, this is what RSS does for you. Technology now allows you to get updated information when you want it. Many bloggers only write articles when it suits them, and some websites may only update their sites months or years down the road. So,subscribing to an RSS feed saves you time and helps you get the information you want more quickly. It is just a more convenient way to see what your favorite sites are doing.
RSS feeds can also work something like e-mail, for instance, when you subscribe to let a website or blogsite make contact with you via their RSS feed button, if you like, they can also alert you via e-mail of any updates as soon as they publish it. All you have to do is place your e-mail address in the box provided and you will be notified by e-mail of those updates
Over the last few years you may have noticed little RSS feed buttons on your favorite browser. Depending on the type of browser you have, they may look like one of these.
If, you don't see one of these RSS feed buttons on your browsers toolbar; you can do a Google search using (the name of your browser,i.e.(Internet Explorer, FireFox, Opera, etc.) and the words "RSS feed reader") and Google will find the page with the steps you take to have a RSS feed reader placed on your Toolbar.
On my blog, prisonersnetwork.blogspot.com the button looks like this:
Note: (I placed my RSS feed button on the side of my blog)
...and, by clicking onto this little orange button you will be subscribed to my blogsite, and the RSS feed on your browser will display updated articles from my site. Then, with a click onto your RSS button, you will see a list of articles that I may have posted since your last visit.
At any time you can un-subscribe from any website or blog simply by removing the the site's address from the list on your RSS feeder.
It's a great way to stay in touch with your favorite websites, or blogsites.
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