What Is RSS?.

I spent last night updating and editing my RSS feeds and I thought it might be good for me to explain what RSS is and does for some of my . . . how shall I say . . . older readers. Just because you’re old doesn’t mean you can’t make the web work for you. So I’m going to share a quick tutorial on how to set up an RSS Reader. And how you can read all of the websites that you want in one place without having to go to 100 different websites.

In plain English what RSS allows you to do is pull websites and their content in like emails. You have 2 options on how you do this. You can download a RSS Reader to your computer (similar to Microsoft Outlook) or you can do it online (like your Bellsouth, Hotmail, GMail, or Yahoo online email accounts). You then go to your favorite website (hopefully I make the list) and add it into your account. At this point, anytime I write a new post, it automatically goes to your RSS Reader and appears like new email.

What this effectively does is keeping you from having to go to 100 different websites a day checking for new content. In the case of you aforementioned old people, this will help prevent arthritis. Instead of having to go to individual sites one at a time. You just open your RSS Reader on your computer (if you go with the downloadable version) or you login to your RSS Reader online. And every site that you have preselected to read shows up with new content in email format.

Here’s a screen shot of what it looks like in action (click to enlarge).

As you can see, you can subscribe to tons of blogs and websites (as indicated by the left hand column). And then it shows up like it does on the website and just like an email (as indicated by the bottom box).

So again, you have two options. The version that exists on your computer. Or the version that exists online. I use the kind that sits on my computer.

The program I use is Thunderbird (it also can double as an email client), which was developed by the same people who created Firefox. Thunderbird is the type of program that you download to your computer (like Microsoft Outlook). And the best part is that it’s free.

If you don’t want to have one that downloads to your computer, you can do it online (like your Bellsouth, Hotmail, GMail, or Yahoo online email accounts). My recommendation for this type of RSS Reader would be Google’s Reader. This one is actually the easiest to use. Because all you have to do is copy the web address of the site you want into the Add Section and you’re done. A screen shot of Google Reader is below (click to enlarge).

Anyway . . . this is a basic overview. I’d be happy to answer any questions if anyone has any. I just figured it would be an easier way for some of you guys to read your websites. It drives me crazy when Anna types in every address to a hundred different websites every day. When it’s so much easier to just open a program and let the internet do the work for you. Good luck and happy browsing.

BTW – Here are my blog feeds if anyone wants to start from here and build off of it. Also, if you download it and see that you aren’t on it, and are a regular reader here, please let me know so that I can follow your conversations as well. And here’s my Tech/News/Design feed.