RSS Feeds Demo

Why use RSS?

RSS is a standard data transport format for the Internet. Websites use it to make frequently updated content available on demand. Computers pull in fresh entries by reading the RSS feed(s) offered by each website.

RSS feeds are also called Web feeds or just plain feeds. Feeds save you the trouble of visiting each website with your browser just in case there is something new there. Feeds can bring you news, sports, recipes, music, comics, videos, science, extreme weather announcements, calendar events, and much more. And there's no spam. :-)

Definitions

RSS = Really Simple Syndication — a really stupid signifier, but the concept is simply brilliant (see above). :-)
Feeds = Web feeds = frequently updated notices of content (may contain some or all of the content) [CyberCoyote is an example] {tab1/tab2}
Blogs = frequently updated web journals (they usually provide feeds) {tab3}
Podcasts/Vidcasts = frequently updated audio/video feeds (with attachments) {see Readers}

Examples of feeds: {note1}

News - NYT
Blogs - Scoble - mine
Announcements - Email vs Web feed (notice auto-discovery)

Update: I've added a page on subscribing to web feeds to augment the demo that I did at the January 8, 2009 meeting. There are a few tricks to subscribing to feeds, which are not obvious at first. I should have shown them to you.

Finding feeds:

Keep your eyes open at your favorite websites.
Suggestions from CyberCoyote.org
NYT - Blogs 101
Google Blog Search
Fagan Finder Most any feed reader also has a way to search for blogs/feeds. {Bloglines}
Browse online aggregators like Original Signal or popurls

Readers:

Browser add-ons, e.g., Brief, Feed Sidebar, NewsFox and others
Web-based feed readers, e.g., Google Reader and NewsGator
Desktop readers: FeedDemon and RSS Bandit
Juice (Podcasts)
Miro (Vidcasts)
More feed readers