All about RSS

For those of you who have never heard of RSS, you might be surprised to know that it has been around for over 15 years.  RSS has stood for different things, but these days it is mostly called “Really Simple Syndication” and represents a set of web standards for automatically delivering (publishing) frequently updated information, such as information created by news sources, vendors, or bloggers.  With RSS, the content you want (called a “feed”) can be automatically delivered to you without having to be processed as an email message.

In order to subscribe to a RSS feed, you need a software program called a RSS reader.  There are many RSS readers available to you, some of which are likely already on your computer.  For instance, if you are using the latest versions of Safari or Internet Explorer, you already have a RSS reader. If you are using Google’s Chrome, do an internet search for “chrome rss extension” to see a list of available extensions.  If you are using Mozilla Firefox, search for “firefox rss add-on” to see a list of available add-ons.

For mobile devices, there are many choices, both free and not free.  Just search for “ios rss reader” or “android rss reader”, depending on your platform to see what is available.

Each RSS reader has its own method for adding a new feed, but in most cases, here are the steps involved:

1. Browse to the web page that contains the content to which you wish to subscribe.
2. Click on the link or small RSS button.  These days that button usually looks like the graphic on the top    of this blog.
3. Confirm that you do indeed wish to subscribe.
4. Every time new content is published, you will automatically receive updated information in your RSS reader.
   

If you wish to try subscribing to my blog via RSS, set up your RSS reader as described above, then click on this link: http://steve.gimnicher.com/technology-blog, then click on the RSS Feed icon in the right column next to the most recent blog.