9/05/2005

Get Your Blog On! (RSS)

I've mentioned RSS Feeds before. Put simply they allow you to read a bunch of news or other items from many different web sites all on the same page. This is fabulous for blogs. By subscribing to the RSS Feeds from all my friends blogs, I can read them all on a single page. It's quick, easy and free. You can do it too, and it's much easier than you think.

The first thing you need is a browser that supports RSS Feeds. There are two popular ones. For Mac there's Safari and Firefox. For PCs there's just Firefox.

Microsoft Windows Internet Explorer doesn't support RSS Feeds. But it does support your computer being hijacked by various pornographers and hackers. Please oh please won't you switch to something safe? Do it for me.

Once you're using the right browser, here's what you can do!

This next link demonstrates RSS Feeds. If you're using Safari, click on it and you'll see how cool it is!

RSS Feeds for Dale and All His Buddies

This is really easy to set up.

Safari RSS Setup

The first thing you should do is create a folder on your bookmarks toolbar. Call it something like "RSS Feeds" or "Mondo News".

Watch for sites that offer RSS Feeds.

In Safari, you'll see this logo at the top.

When you see this icon click it. You can be sure you're looking at a feed page because the address starts with "feed://" instead of the usual "http://". Then drag the site address into the folder you created on your bookmarks bar.

Here's some more help.

Safari RSS Feeds


Firefox RSS Setup

RSS seems to work best in Firefox as a Sidebar. Turn your Bookmark Sidebar on.

View -> Sidebar -> Bookmarks

Create a folder for your RSS Feeds and watch for sites that offer them.

In Firefox, you'll see this logo at the bottom.

Click the logo and choose "Subscribe to this feed."

Here's some more help.

Firefox RSS Feeds

Advice for Bloggers
If you are a blogger yourself, you may already be publishing an RSS Feed and not know it. Blogger.com, LiveJournal.com and a lot of other blog engines support RSS and you don't have to do anything extra. Just check your blog settings and make sure RSS Feed publishing is turned on.
Posted by Dale Sorenson at 1:28 PM
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1 comments:

Murray Todd Williams said...

There's one other advantage to these "reader blog tools" that nobody seems to mention. Yeah, it makes it possible to view dozens of web sites' content to zero in on what's interesting. But in the case of your web site, I like using my Safari RSS bookmarks because I know when my friend Dale has written something new.

That way, you can't write something here without my reading it usually within 12 hours. Similarly, my own "blogging" tends to be sporadic, but the same couple friends comment on whatever I post within a day or two, even if I haven't posted anything in a month before.

Thanks to RSS.

11:45 AM

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