What is RSS?
I am "CA" Atreya (PMP, MBA), the author of this blog. I help businesses in Atlantic Canada achieve their BHAG successfully. You may subscribe to this blog using a feed reader (RSS).
I met a stranger a few days ago - casual chat and complaining about the weather and stuff. By the way, I have noticed us Nova Scotians love to complain about the weather. It is never perfect. In winter we complain about the cold and snow; in spring we complain about the rain and slush and cold; in summer we complain about the heat - you get the picture, right? One topic lead to another and somehow the conversation veered to the Internet. When he learnt I am a Business Analyst and have my own blog, he asked me, “What the hell is RSS?”
I was dumbfounded. I assumed it was a given that people knew about feeds and syndication and blogs. After we parted ways, I was left with a nagging doubt. How many visitors to this blog are not familiar with RSS? What if I am losing readership because of this? I quickly decided to attempt to remedy this.
There are a number of abbreviations floating around - Really Simple Syndication, Rich Site Summary, RDF Site Summary - depending on whom you talk to. The acronym’s not very helpful, is it? What it essentially means is that you can read the contents of this blog (or any website that offers RSS) without having to visit it.
Why would you need this feature?
Do you subscribe to print magazines and news papers? Isn’t it convenient that these publications are delivered to your house? What if you had to go to the publishing house each day to retrieve your copy? Not practical, right?
Similarly, you can subscribe to any number of blogs and websites without having to visit each one. RSS is a web feed format accomplishes this by delivering the content of your favorite blogs right into your feed reader.
Now what’s a feed reader?
A feed reader is an application that enables you to read feeds. All new email clients like (Outlook, Thunderbird, etc.) will enable you to “grab a feed”. The latest version of browsers also enable you to grab feeds. Google Reader, BlogLines, Yahoo and other similar online readers makes it easier to read your favorite sites. See a rather extensive list of feed readers.
How do I know if the site offers feeds?
Look for this icon. This icon is a standard to denote a RSS feed. If a website displays this icon, you know it offers feeds.
Subscription process
The feed icon described above, typically will have a link. Copy the link into your favorite reader. Thats it! Were you expecting more instructions? Sorry to disappoint you. Now you see why RSS is so popular? It’s easy and convenient.
Subscribe by e-mail
Oh yes, you can do that too. Have Atlantic Canada’s Small Business Blog updates delivered right into your inbox everyday. Just enter your email address below and we will send you a daily email with updated content:
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