Several of our readers have emailed us asking, “What’s an RSS Feed?” RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication”. It’s an easy way to distribute content like news, stories, podcasts, and even the post on PipeProblems.com that you’re reading right now –to a large number of people, like you! Software programs, called “RSS readers”, collect that content and then present it in an organized and easy to read format.
Most people are interested in many web sites whose content changes on an irregular basis. For example, let’s say that you’re interested in keeping up with what’s new in high-tech, you could subscribe to the RSS feeds for TechCrunch, Gizmodo, and Engadget. If you did subscribe, instead of having to go out and check each site to see if there’s any new content, you’d automatically be notified of any new posts.
With an RSS reader you can subscribe to many sites’ feeds and read the new articles, entries, and posts all in one place without having to visit the individual websites.
There are several different kinds of RSS readers: Dedicated programs for viewing RSS feed (that generally aren’t free), plug-ins that allow you to view RSS feeds in your email program (e.g. Microsoft Outlook), and websites that allows you to set up RSS feed subscriptions through them. I recommend using the websites’ RSS readers –not only are they free, but they work on BOTH Mac and Windows computers. The three I see used most often are Google Reader, MyYahoo!, and Bloglines.
I also recommend watching the below video (<4 min.) explanation of RSS feeds and readers by Common Craft. To view it you can either click on the player below or click here to open the video on YouTube.
