An ancient Web technology beats the pants off news delivery from social media.
In truth, Facebook and Google+ don’t deliver true news.
Social media content arrives late and at random; it’s not tailored to your needs and lacks organization.
But what does RSS do, how can it improve your life and how do you get started?
What Does RSS Do?
RSS simplifies, organizes and delivers web content, without visiting a website.
Think of it like a customizable newspaper.
The RSS experience revolves around two components:RSS feedsandnews aggregators.
Feeds deliver to the aggregator, also known as a “feed reader”.
Aggregators come in three shapes: Mobile apps, internet tool-based interfaces and offline desktop clients.
Some web services, like Feedly and AOL Reader, offer sync-support across both desktop and mobile platforms.
We’ve actually touched onRSS technology in an older articlewhich you might want to read.
Do you get dozens of low-priority emails a day?
RSS can do away with these by storing website updates in the RSS aggregator.
Then you’re free to read them as your leisure.
Where Are RSS Feeds Found?
A minority of sites don’t even publish them!
For first-time users, I recommend heading on over to Feedly’s website and getting started.
The user plugs feeds into the aggregator, checking it at their leisure, from any rig.
When sites publish new content, they also include what’s called an RSS “feed”.
A feed contains the text and images of the website’s content.
They provide instant access to content without visiting the site.
It’s extremely data efficient and loads quickly.
So where do sites place their RSS links?
It’s just a simple URL, set to output in XML.
you’re able to find the link by going tooneof our site’s many subsections.
For example, you might takeMakeUseOf’s RSS feedand add it toFeedlyby just cutting and pasting.
Here’s a link toIFTTT’s RSS-to-emailnotification system.
It takes about five minutes to configure, but after that, the service works perfectly.
There are three kinds of RSS feeds: Convertible URLs, FeedBurner-based and direct XML links.
Many sites also offer multiple RSS feeds, separated by category.
For example, CNN includes RSS links for sports, world news and more.
Reddit, for example, allows users to change their URL into RSS feeds.
becomes:
when you’ve got this link, it can insert into a feed reader.
I’m not getting into the complexity required in creating a Facebook RSS feed.
They exist, but you shouldread this articlebefore considering it, as it takes a fair amount of work.
YouTube RSS links, which worked at one point, were recently broken by Google for unexplainable reasons.
I suspect it has to do with pushing users into Google+.
Various flavors of mobile reader exist, such asTiny Tiny RSSand Press.
Pretty much all feed readers which include a Web interface also provide hosting services.
If you find yourself wanting more, readMakeUseOf’s guide to RSS.
Conclusion
For those wanting to enhance their information gathering capabilities, an ancient Web technology will help.
It’s called “RSS”.
Unfortunately, the Big Data companies don’t like RSS.
Google’s attitude toward it borders on the schizophrenic.
While some sites, such as Reddit, embrace RSS, others fear it or attempt to deprecate it.
Does anyone know why a superior technology gets worse treatment than inferior technologies?
I’m at a loss for words.
