Understanding RSS (Real Simple Syndication) Feeds
Guest Author | 21 November 2005 |
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We are all so busy that if we can find a way to filter our news and information to our liking, and consolidate it into one place, we are more likely to keep current with the news.
Every day, we are bombarded with information. For some, this is so overwhelming that they just turn off, tune out and stop participating. This can be fine for a while, and I am sure there are some people who go through life without ever knowing what is happening in the world around them, but for a business owner, this is not the best course of action.
If there is a new lodging tax that will affect your property or some new licensing rules coming down to the pipe, you’ll need to be informed. Spending time going through websites, newspapers and articles to find information takes time. When you do find a good source, checking back to see if there are updates can also be time consuming.
This is where an RSS feed can come in handy. This is one aspect of the ever-evolving Internet that can probably save you some time, and as a busy independent business owner, a few minutes here and a few minutes there are always a good thing.
An RSS feed is a way to filter news on the web. There are thousands of sites and thousands of Blogs. To read and check them all is just too daunting a task. With an RSS feed reader, you can subscribe to specific information in which you are interested, and have the news sent to you only when there is an update. Using a feed reader allows you to access those articles at a convenient time.
How does this work? If you are interested in ‘Bird Watching’ and the ‘Atlantic Coast’, then you can go to www.news.Google.com and search for ‘Bird Watching’ and ‘Atlantic Coast’. The Google news aggregator will go and search for all articles with those keywords and bring back the results. On the left side of the Google page you will see a link to RSS|Atom and About Feeds. When you click on the ‘RSS’ link, you will be sent to a page that looks a little like gobbly-de-gook. This page is the xml (code) behind the news reader. In order to view this information in a web browser, you’ll need a ‘feed reader’ that will translate the xml into something legible. Keep this page open and read-on to learn how this all works.
You can subscribe to a feed by using either a desktop- or web-based news aggregator. There are a number of feed readers available. I personally use Bloglines, a web-based news aggregator. I like how easy it is to subscribe to feeds, and how I can read my feeds online with any computer with internet access. Additionally, I like the way the feeds are displayed in a quick view format. Bloglines is also one of the better-known feed readers, and many sites have a one-click Bloglines button on their pages to help subscribers sign-up.
Ok, so let’s use Bloglines in this example. Open a new browser window and go to www.Bloglines.com. Subscribe using the ‘Sign Up now It’s free!’ link, then create your account. Once registered, you can subscribe to feeds. On the left side of the page, click on ‘Add’ - this will allow you to add a new feed. Now, go back to your page results on Google and click on the RSS link (the one that takes you to the xml page). Copy the URL in the address bar and paste it into the Blog or Feed URL on Bloglines. Click ‘Subscribe’ and then ‘Subscribe’ again on the next screen. The feed will show in your list on the left. Click on the feed link and you will see all the recent articles pertaining to your search results.
You can subscribe to as many feeds as you like through Bloglines. This free service also allows users to subscribe to blogs such as the Blizzard Newsletter blog, found at www.Newsletter.BlizzardInternet.com. To add a blog, use the same process by clicking on the RSS feed for the blog and subscribe using your feed reader. Pretty much anything that has an RSS feed can be subscribed to, so that as news is updated, you’re able to see it in your Bloglines account.
To unsubscribe to any of these feeds, use the "Edit Links" feature and follow the instructions to remove the feed link.
Here are some industry Blogs and feeds that we find useful; if you find a good hospitality industry feed not listed here, please add it to the comments area for this article (accessed below).
Liz Hamilton - Maia Internet Consulting
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November 22nd, 2005 at 9:23 pm
I use Google Desktop as my RSS reader — it has a “sidebar” that shows my favorite RSS feeds, the newest things in my inbox, a list of documents I worked on recently, and of course the weather.
It is available at http://desktop.google.com Make sure you enable the “sidebar” and make it useful for your own needs.
We should start a list of Blogs and/or RSS related to the industry, like above