You may have heard of RSS or you may have seen the icon on the right but have no idea what it is or what is can do for you. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. In simple terms, RSS makes it easy to get information from sites you visit frequently, as your RSS reader will get any new updates automatically, so you don’t need to visit the site itself.

This article will explain RSS (often referred to as feeds) in depth and show you how you can use it and get the most out of it. RSS subscriptions are very easy to setup and there are a number of options for viewing the feeds. I will run through a few of the most popular feed readers.

Here’s an analogy to describe how RSS feeds work: Think of it as a newspaper that is delivered to your door each morning with only the stories you are interested in reading. You don’t have to sift through the sections you don’t care about.

Many sites are now offering RSS feeds as a standard feature so the range of sites you can get feeds from is massive. Many on line forums are also offering feeds which allow you to follow a topic without the need to check in to see if there is anyone has posted a reply.

RSS feeds generally contain the same pictures and text as you would get on the website of that feed. Some sites offer only headlines or the start of an article in which you can click through to get the whole story or to delete it, saving you from downloading an article you are not interested in.

Subscribing

The term subscribing refers to adding a feed to your reader. Once you have added an RSS feed to your reader so you receive updates, you have subscribed to that feed.

Some sites offer hundreds of updates a day so it is important to choose your feeds wisely and to have the right program to view and sort your feeds, so you don’t get overwhelmed.

Feed readers/aggregators

You are able to view feeds directly inside your web browser but receiving your feeds this way does not take advantage or what RSS can do for you. For best results, download a feed reader or a plug in for your browser to look after your RSS needs. Feed readers and news aggregators are the same thing. They scan the sites you have subscribed to for updated content and then delivers the articles to you.

Below are my favourite feed readers, including advantages and disadvantages of each.

RSS Popper: Available from RSS Popper.

This is the feed reader I use as it is simple to use. RSS popper uses Microsoft Outlook as its manager, so you will need to be running Outlook to use it. Each update that comes to you shows up similar to an email allowing you to easily save the stories into your own folders for reading later.

Each feed goes into it’s own folder, keeping your inbox for email use.

I highly recommend RSS popper if you have outlook. The only con I have come across is that you can’t view all your posts from the one folder.

Sharp Reader: Available from Sharpreader.net.

This is my favourite stand alone feed reader. As with most things I like, it is very simple to use and operate. You can view all your updates in the one window or in the individual feed folders. It just works. There is plenty of screen space to see the posts in. The only drawback is that you cannot file stories away for later reading.

As new articles come in, a pop-up shows up on your screen alerting you that a new message has arrived. This way you can keep on top of your reading.

Feed Reader: Available from Feedreader.com

Yet another fine choice for a stand-alone reader. It has pop-ups to let you know when new stories are in and it lets you view all unread items from the same window. A good clean interface that is easy to use.

One great feature Feed Reader offers is the ability to search articles for specific keywords.

So there are some of your options. There are many more free or cheap RSS readers available including plug-ins that will work with your browser. RSS is very basic technology so most feed readers will do the job well. A lot comes down to personal preference, and the programs you are currently running.

You can start off your RSS feed list with inspectmygadget’s RSS Feed. Look for the  RSS logo or name on any sites you frequent and load them up into your reader. I recommend taking advantage of this technology.

There are also readers for Pocket PC’s and Palm devices. You can take the feeds with you and read them whilst on the train or in a boring meeting.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this article and hope it has cleared up what RSS is for you. Find out more stuff at Inspectmygadget.com.