The-Word-Well

What is RSS?

I’m glad you had the guts to ask!

You’ve probably been seeing this orange icon everywhere. It stands for Really Simple Syndication. It is a tool for reading new blog posts and news updates from your favorite sites (like this one!) via one central news reader site, instead of visiting the various sites themselves and checking for new content every time. It’s like checking your voicemail instead of calling all your friends and asking if they’ve called you.

If you want to check out the posts on any of your favorite blogs (like this one!), you can do so from the same reader, just by defining which content should arrive in your RSS feed – ie: by subscribing on those sites, with the click of that famous orange button. If you have Gmail, you already have one built in, called Google Reader.

The below video explains it very well!

…So, you want to get started with RSS? Get a news reader:

If you use Firefox:
 Live bookmarks

If you already have Gmail:
 Google Reader

If you already use Yahoo:
 Yahoo’s news reader

You can easily find an RSS Reader that most integrates with your web habits. There is a reader for just about every scenario, such as if you use a Mac (but don’t want to interface through Gmail or Yahoo), or if you want the reader to integrate with your Outlook.

This following link reviews 20 popular readers and explains what they integrate well with: 20 Free RSS Readers Reviewed

If you are ready to subscribe to The-Word-Well, here’s that link you’re after:

“Subscribe to my feed” Subscribe by RSS
…Skittish? You can still do it the old fashioned way, and just get new blog posts and updates from us to your e-mail: Subscribe by Email