Going Pro with RSS in Font

Drawer Code 128A in Font Going Pro with RSS

So far, you ve sampled various ways to dip a toe into the blogosphere, but what happens when you start amassing more blogs than you can keep up with You start subscribing to blogs and stop visiting them. One of the features of blogs from nearly the first day has been their use of RSS to make it easy to subscribe to a blog. Instead of visiting the blogs you follow one by one, you subscribe to them, and postings to that blog appear in your RSS reader, whether online or on your desktop. From the latest news in a blog you and four other people read to all the news, sports, and infotainment CNN, large and medium newspapers, and media properties now make available, RSS has become the other Big Tool for dealing with web overload.8 RSS is one of those messy computer standards, like WiFi. Several different versions exist. Some work for everything; others won t handle things like podcasts. GYM (Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft) are busy expanding, bear hugging, and innovating this protocol. But you don t need to worry about any of this.

Today, you can get a free RSS reader from Google (www.google.com/reader) or MyYahoo (http://my.yahoo.com/). Firefox, Internet Explorer 7, and Microsoft Outlook 2007 have built-in

support for subscribing to and presenting RSS. Or you can use one of the estimated 1,900 other desktop and web-based RSS readers. All of them can handle RSS properly. To use RSS, follow these simple steps: 1. Pick an RSS reader to try online or download (see the next section). 2. Find out how your new RSS reader adds a blog, newsfeed, or other site you want to follow. 3. Look for the orange icon shown in Figure 2-12 that is now the almost universal9 RSS available symbol, and subscribe. (Also keep an eye out for other, older orange icons that say RSS or XML, the format of RSS and other related feed mechanisms.)

With all of the RSS readers out there for your PC, Mac, Linux box, or entirely on the Web, which RSS reader is right to for you That is entirely a matter of taste. However, whichever RSS reader you decide to use should have at least these five critical features: Clean interface: Reading your RSS reader will soon replace reading your daily newspaper. You want a clean layout that makes sense, is easy on the eyes, and makes it easy for you to get in and get out with the information you want. Sync me up: Even if you use only one computer, you ll still find it very handy if your RSS reader has both a Web and desktop presence that automatically synchronize. If you travel, or use two or more computers, this is a must-have feature. Command and control: Even with a good RSS reader, you can still easily find yourself overloaded with information. Your RSS feeder should have tools like filtering by keyword or tag; multiple sort options; support for headlines, extracts, or full items; and the ability to put a given subscription on hold temporarily. Hold that thought: RSS readers are great for delivering the latest and greatest, but what if you want to hold on to an item after you ve read it Or maybe you want to pull together items from different feeds into one collection. Look for these features.

9. In December 2005, the Microsoft Internet Explorer team and Outlook team announced in their blogs that they were adopting the cool feed icons created by Canadian freelance designer Matt Brett (http:// mattbrett.com/archives/2005/12/the-new-standard-feed-icon/) and first adopted by the Mozilla open source project for Firefox. This is a great example of the power one blogger can have.