You're Using RSS Now...Right?

From You're Using RSS Now...Right? by Chris Butler

By Chris Butler

I (Eric) have been writing our Web Smart newsletters, month in and month out, for over seven years. Which makes this month's newsletter a happy, yet sentimentally somber relief. This month Chris Butler, Newfangled's Vice President, will pick up where our March 2006 newsletter on RSS left off.

RSS is a powerful advance in Internet technology. It's a game changer. Yet, RSS is also one of the most underutilized Internet technologies. If you feel like the Internet is taking over and you just don't know how to catch up, RSS can help. And, if you don't feel that way you should look behind you; there's a rising tidal wave of Internet marketing that is threatening to capsize the traditional marketing boat. It's time to start bailing out that water rising around your ankles, and RSS is the best place to start.

How often do you hear a phrase like, "Go to www.suchandsuch.com?" "Going to" a website- the idea makes sense right? Not for much longer. It wasn't that long ago that I used to rely upon bookmarks in my browser to remind me of all the different websites that I like to keep up with. I had them all nicely categorized so that I could look under "Project Management," say, find the entry for Max Wideman's Project Management Glossary, then go there to see what's new. Now, most of the sites I keep up with provide RSS feeds for their frequently updated content, so as a subscriber, their information comes to me. That means for many of these sites, I no longer need the bookmark to remind me that I'm interested in their content (not to mention the fact that del.icio.us allows me to access bookmarks from any computer, anywhere).

In this newsletter, I'll re-introduce you to RSS and a new side of the internet where information is no longer tied to websites. I'll try not to get too wildly visionary, but because I agree with Eric that RSS has become one of the most important technologies used on the internet, my hunch is that the day is coming when even the word "website" might be a bit of an anachronism.

What is RSS?

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and is used to refer to an XML file that enables content from a website to be simultaneously published to anyone that has subscribed to it. Using an RSS feed reader, or aggregator, you can subscribe to RSS feeds from any source and view the content immediately after it has been published. In other words, RSS enables you to receive information from multiple websites directly to one place without having to go to those websites individually. You can read more about the basics of RSS in our newsletter from March 2006, titled RSS: When the Web Comes to You.

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Chris | August 29, 2008 2:14 PM

Update (hat tip to Eric): Copyblogger has a good article titled "How to Read," which discusses the 4 levels of reading from Mortimer Adler's How to Read a Book (in my library). Good stuff.

I love the conclusion:

"Reading, at its fundamental essence, is not about absorbing information. It’s about asking questions, looking for answers, understanding the various answers, and deciding for yourself. Think of reading this way, and you quickly realize how this allows you to deliver unique value to your readers as a publisher.

If you think all of this sounds like a lot of work, well… you’re right. And most people won’t do it, just like most people will never blog or publish online in the first place.

That’s why your readers need you. They need you to do the work for them, because they don’t want to become an expert. So, it’s your job to understand the complex and grasp the essentials, then make it simple, easy to read, and entertaining."

Steve | April 16, 2009 8:30 AM

Thanks for that primer. It still seems like it can absorb a lot of time to set up the subscriptions in the first place but at least you give a practical way to organise and sift through the overwhelming amount of information.