I have to be honest – I’m a late comer to using RSS. I’ve dabbled with it in the past, but never really found a reader/client that I was really happy with. As a result, I tended to have a load of sites opened in separate tabs in Firefox.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a way of aggregating posts from many web sites – usually blogs and/or news related – into one place. You can either use a software client such as FeedDemon, or an online reader such as Google Reader or Bloglines to read RSS feeds. The latter option of online RSS readers has the advantage of being easily accessed from anywhere you have access to a web browser, and does not require extra software to be installed. This means you can even read them from PDAs and mobile phones.
A software RSS reader/client on the other hand has to be installed first, which is fine if you only ever read from one computer. You also do not have to register an account first, but on the other hand, if you read from more than one computer, keeping various installs synced with your subscriptions and what you’ve read can be difficult. You may also find that you cannot install your favourite reader on the computer you are using, usually at work and especially places like internet cafés.
It was only recently that I stumbled across Google’s RSS solution, and decided to give it a go. I fell in love (well, maybe not in “love”) more or less instantly and am now a fan of using RSS.
Still not sure about what RSS is and how to use? Well, rather than “reinvent the wheel” and warble on, I suggest you watch the following video: