I’ve become a big fan of reading blogs via RSS feeds. Some people use Google Reader or something similar to accomplish this. I am currently using Vienna, an open source program, although I also own Newsfire. And I know that my browser will let me read RSS feeds, as will my mail program. There are lots of options available.
RSS is often expanded as “Really Simple Syndication,” although I’m not sure that was the original meaning. It provides a “feed” of frequently updated materials, like blogs or news websites. I currently follow over 200 feeds; I wouldn’t be able to begin to look at all of that material on their original websites.
Some of the blogs I follow don’t provide a full feed. I don’t mind too much those that give excerpts, but I really don’t care for those that give you nothing but a title. If you’re going to get me to read your blog based merely on a title, it had better be a really good title. Those blogs that come through blank rarely get a read from me. (I’m sure their authors are crushed)
I think the use of feeds will grow, both in the number of sites providing feeds and the number of people reading via feeds. If you haven’t tried it, I would suggest you give it a whirl. To subscribe to the feeds from this site, you can click on one of the choices at the top right or click on the link that says “RSS feed” at the end of each individual post. Some browsers also let you click on an RSS symbol in the address bar.
See you in the feed!
Exactly! I use RSS Owl all the time and I’m always wishing someone would allow their whole blog post to be seen!
I had changed my feed to excerpt, mainly to change how the front page of the site looks. But I realized how annoying that is and changed it back. (I think)
Grace and peace,
Tim Archer
Yes, you changed it back.
I use Google Reader just because I use Chrome, Gmail, and Google Docs already, so it’s just simpler than using a different feed program. That, and Google Reader has an app for my Blackberry.
How do you collect statistics on reads via RSS? Site hits are pretty easily collected — RSS would seem less so.
200!??!?? I struggle to keep up with the 35 I follow.
They’re not all blogs. Some are news feeds. I even get the daily Dilbert cartoon by RSS.
I have them grouped by folders. I try to at least look at everything in the “Christian Blogs” folder. The other folders are read as time permits.
Grace and peace,
Tim Archer
How do I set up an RSS feed for my blog?
Rex, your blog has an RSS feed. Two, in fact. Look at the right sidebar, almost at the bottom of the page. You’ll see an RSS feed for posts (kingdomseeking.wordpress.com/feed/) and one for comments (kingdomseeking.wordpress.com/comments/feed/).
If you’d like a little more control over your feeds, visit feedburner.com (which will redirect you to Google, since they bought FeedBurner). Read around a bit on the site, and you’ll learn all sorts of things about feeds.
Grace and peace,
Tim Archer
I have had several people tell me I should use RSS. I don’t have a clue what they are talking about! Call me techno-challenged.
Mozilla’s Firefox browser (open sourced, community developed, available at Firefox.com) has an available add-on named “Feed Sidebar” that can be left open on one side of your browser window so that you can see when a feed has a new entry. It only lists titles, but I choose what I will read base on my past experience with the writer. I hide the sidebar when I want some uninterrupted work time. Otherwise, Feed Sidebar keeps checking the sites for updates and I can keep up with breaking news, include a just posted article to my current reading, or ignore it till later. I appreciate having all the feeds readily available. Feed Sidebar compiles the list of feeds by looking through my bookmark toolbar. A click gives me a preview in the sidebar. A double-click gives me the article, tweet, or podcast in my browser window.