What is RSS?

What does RSS mean? 

Well, depending who you ask, it means either:

• Really Simple Syndication


• or Rich Site Summary

 

What does RSS do?

 So by now, you've got your usual websites you visit daily.  Let's say they are KSL.com, PCWorld.com, and of course, my blog.  <wink>   ...oh, and who can forget ebay?

Now imagine instead of GOING to those websites to look for new stuff, what if they now came to you?  Wouldn't that save you some time?   For instance, those of you who are on my email list can just sit back and wait for my new blog entries to come rollin' into your email.  You don't have to go looking to see if there's anything new, because most likely I'll be sending you the link.  RSS is very similar to this, the info comes to you, although there's nobody on the other end physically writing the email each time.

RSS "feeds" can be viewed in a large variety of programs, kind of like email.  You basically get a summary of the new content sent to you, and you can quickly scan your list to see if anything new is worth clicking on. 

Although there are many ways to do this, a simple method is by using Google Reader - www.reader.google.com .  I used to use different clients such as Mozilla Thunderbird and such, but since you're on the internet anyways, you should just have a tab or window open with Google Reader, rather than loading a completely different program.

Now that you've signed up for a Google Account (if not, click here for instructions - http://blog.weber.k12.ut.us/jumcfarland/2008/10/22/create-a-google-account/ )  You can use the Google Reader to load your feeds.