What is RSS and what are feed readers?

I set up two of my friends with Bloglines. Bloglines is an online RSS reader. Several people have asked me what RSS is. RSS is deeply splintered among several competing visions. One says RSS Stands for "RDF Site Summary", another says RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication", and yet another is Rich Site Summary. Within these factions, you'll find numerous minor specification revisions. Several sites have RSS feeds and you will need an RSS feed reader to read the feeds, Bloglines allows you to do just that.

What is a RSS feed?
A feed is a web document that usually ends in .xml or .rss and it is a slimed down version of a website that is created to be easily syndicated. It may be represented by an orange icon. Go ahead and click on it to see my feed.

What does it cost?
Nothing, It’s free.

What is a feed reader?
A feed reader is an application, stand alone or web based, that reads feeds. A feed reader is to feeds what an email application is to email.

What is a Chicklet or feed button?
A Chicklet is a feed button that has your feed readers logo and the blog’s information attached to it. It has been specifically coded to make it as easy as possible to subscribe to the site’s feed. To subscribe to my feed, just click on the Chicklet (feed button) that represents the feed reader you choose to use. If you don’t see your reader, simply click on the first orange icon under SYNDICATION in the right hand column on this page and you’ll be presented with the raw rss feed. Copy this URL into your feed reader. You may need to see your feed readers help files for more information on adding feeds.

How do I unsubscribe to a feed?
Just delete the feed from your feed reader. You may need to see your feed readers help files for specific information.

How do I know when a feed is updated?
All feed readers update periodically. You may have to push an update button, or it may happen when you load the page or open the feed reader. When updating, the feed reader will go out and check for updated information for you. If there is anything new, the feed reader will alert you; usually bolding new information.

Why is this good?
A feed reader can check all your feeds in seconds for updates without you ever having to visit the websites. 5 or 500 feeds, it doesn’t matter. It’ll do all the work much faster than you can surf to the website to check manually. This will help you stay up to date with many different sites.

How do I set up a feed?
That’s a whole different topic. But get a Blog and you’ll get a feed.