So what is this “RSS” you speak of?
This is an article for people that look at me with a blank expression when I say RSS!
In this article:
- I’ll tell you why you need RSS in your life.
- More importantly I’ll tell you what RSS actually is.
- I’ll show you how to get an RSS feed onto your computer.
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. Do you care? Probably not, so let’s stop the waffle.
Bob is interested in Marketing.
He doesn’t want to search through multiple websites to find new useful information – what a waste of time!
He does want this new useful information to be collected in one place, so when he has time its ready and waiting. No searching required. Cool.
That’s where the RSS reader comes in! RSS is like a pipe from your chosen website direct to your desktop – and you’re the plumber! The website packages up the content in a no-fuss kind of way so it can be read easily on your computer. No thrills, no flashing images – just the content.
“Wow – That will save me time AND make me look SMART in front of the boss”
This is an RSS logo. If you click it you’ll get a really boring unformatted page. Don’t be scared! This is normal – we want to grab the URL from the browser and paste this into your RSS reader- and thats it!
The RSS reader will periodically check your chosen website for updates.
“But I don’t even have an RSS reader yet!”
Ok – lets take a look at Google Desktop.
http://desktop.google.com/en/GB
Visit this URL and install Google Desktop. We specifically want the web clips widget. Click the little + in the top right to add a new widget. Navigate to “tools” and click web clips.
This should give a window similar to the left on your desktop.
Now if we hover over the webclips there is a little white box that appears with a downwards facing arrow. Click that and hit options from the dropdown. You’ll see a box that you can enter your RSS feeds into.
You’ll also notice that the reader will automatically add sites that you visit frequently! Neat – but sometimes this can be annoying.
So next time you see the RSS icon – think: Is this a useful resource that I could benefit from? If so – add it to your RSS reader!
Of course if you would like your customers to benefit from your wise words via RSS drop me a line – I’ll be happy to help!
I hope this was useful – Next time: Yahoo Pipes: filtering your RSS content.
Patrick Mays wrote this on 24.11.07 – 4 comments
It's filed in the Blogging, RSS box
On November 25th, 2007 at 11:12 am, Mat responded:
When I was at SCIP I always referred clients to this article which explains it all waaaay better than I ever could:
“How to explain RSS the Oprah way”
http://cravingideas.blogs.com/backinskinnyjeans/2006/09/how_to_explain_.html
On November 25th, 2007 at 5:45 pm, Tom responded:
If you want to know more about RSS and what it can do for marketers, check out our RSS e-book chapter:
http://www.nixonmcinnes.co.uk/ebooks/
On November 26th, 2007 at 3:20 pm, Jenni responded:
For those users unwilling to get to grips with a feed reader it’s worth a website owner enabling a ’subscribe by email’ function. This is easily done via Feedburner, a third party service and is something I’d recommend on most business blogs outside of the tech market.
On November 26th, 2007 at 6:18 pm, Trevor responded:
Nice intro, though I’m not really a great fan of Google Desktop.
Google Reader, however, is great. Plus, Firefox allows me to add feeds to Google Reader with just one click. No nasty copying and pasting of feed URLs. Plus(!), I can read them anywhere.