RSS Readers
I had been blogging for almost two months before I knew what RSS or XHTML was. I had heard the terms, but I had no idea what they meant until I saw a webcast by Josh Hallett. The webcast has been very helpful for me, and I would suggest watching it.
RSS and XHTML in layman terms, are ways of viewing a website. To be able to view a site in RSS or XHML you must have a reader. There are many RSS readers out there, but I use newsgator, which is completely free.
Newgator allows you to subscribe to websites. When you subscribe to these websites you will never have to go to the actual site again. You will only have to go to newsgator.com. This is much more convenient and efficient than having to go to a million sites a day.
Your newsgator account will only list the website if it has a new post for that day. Therefore, you don’t waste your time going to the website and finding nothing new. Newsgator handles that for you. When there is something new you just click on the article and it loads right there in newsgator. So you read the article or blog without typing in the address. It is so convenient.
It is easy to subscribe to the sites. All you have to do is enter the web address into newsgator and then it is added to your feeds (folders).
It is ridiculous how convenient RSS readers make blogging. I used to waste hours on end trying to read blogs seeing what was new. Now I don’t waste a second of my time finding new posts. They are all right there for me at newsgator.com. If you have not been using a RSS reader I would suggest starting. It will make your life so much easier.
(This was originally posted at Wes’ Blog.)
Wes,
A good feed-reader is an absolute ‘must-have’ for any member of the blogosphere.
I use www.bloglines.com, I’ve found it to be a very good service.
To each his own though!
Comment by Paull Young — March 14, 2006 @ 1:32 am
[…] Back when Forward first launched, Wes wrote a good post explaining RSS readers (also know as feed aggregators, among other things). Some time has passed and I know we have more readers, many of whom aren’t using an aggregator, so I thought I’d do a follow-up post. I think aggregators are one of those things you don’t realize how much you REALLY needed it until after you’ve started using it. As Wes put it, “It is ridiculous how convenient RSS readers make blogging. I used to waste hours on end trying to read blogs seeing what was new. Now I don’t waste a second of my time finding new posts.” […]
Pingback by Forward Blog » Blog Archive » Follow-up RSS Reader Guide — August 3, 2006 @ 8:27 pm