What are RSS Feeds?

Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 11:48 pm

What are RSS Feeds?

Many websites have links labeled "XML" or "RSS" or "Atom". All this means is that you can find out about updates to that site, without having to visit it in your web browser. This feature is referred to as "syndication" or "aggregation" . Sometimes it's just called subscribing. And these days, instead of one of these words, lots of sites will use a little orange button. The standard one looks like this:

It's also common to see buttons that say "RSS" or "XML", which looks like this:

All these links and buttons simply means this: The site you're viewing has a feed available.

Choosing the right Feed Reader
There are many different options when it comes to subscribing to feeds. A "Feed Reader" is required for using Web Feeds. This tool works like an e-mail program, but no e-mail address is needed. The user subscribes to a web feed, and then will receive updated content, every time updating occurs. Feed Readers may be online (similar to webmail) or offline. Feed readers are used in personalized home page services like iGoogle or My Yahoo or My MSN to put content such as news, weather and stock quotes appear on the user's personal page. Content from other sites can also be added to that personalized page, again using feeds.

Browser Based Feed Readers
Modern browsers have some functionality as feed readers, with Opera probably having the best features at the time of this writing. However, most lack alot the functionality available in other types of feed readers. We'd advise you skip using your browser as a feed reader, at least until the technology improves.

Software Based Feed Readers
Well I have to admit I have yet to try any of the software based feed readers. I'm sure there are alot of them. From a "gamers" perspective, I don't want any program that is going to automatically download anything and effect my internet connection. For this reason I've stayed away from these type of readers.

Web-Based Based Feed Readers
Probably the easiest and most dynamic way to read all of your RSS feeds is to setup an online reader page. Many sites offer "custom home pages" and let you include the content you are interested in. These would be our TOP PICK and are profiled below...

Mobile Feed Readers
Recently a number of mobile readers have arrived to the market. Some newer cell phones and other mobile devices are including RSS reader technology. So, if you have the right device, you can even stay updated on the KMA site on the go... Smile

Here's our Choices for best web-based Feed Readers

Protopage ( LINK )
Probably our favorite of all the web-based feed readers. Many features including public and private "tabs" - and even pages that your friends can edit. All sorts of built in modules and the ability to display just about any feed that you can find. Here's our protopage for just a small example of what you can do:

http://www.protopage.com/kma-clan

Google Reader ( LINK )
Easy to use, and you can also "blog" or syndicate any news stories you like with a couple of clicks. Even your blog has it's own feed, so users can subscribe to your "blog". If you have an existing google account for services such as gmail, no extra registration(s) are required. Here's our shared page for an example of what you get:

http://www.google.com/reader/shared/09837831312260605727

Pageflakes ( LINK )
Easy to setup and register. Probably the best collection of default content, but not able to make your page public. You can share the page via email, and your friends will receive a copy of the page, and they can customize it to their needs. Here's our shared page for an example of what you get:

http://www.pageflakes.com/RO.aspx?pfp=hIylaqZrN0m9qBO916G2RQ

Netvibes ( LINK )
Probably the easiest setup and editing, and the feed reader itself has nice features. No sharing features at the time of this writing, but still everything you might need from a straight-up feed reader.

Blogarithm ( LINK )
Mostly geared toward tracking blogs and RSS feeds, does offer a cool tool to "republish" all your feeds, called a "Blogroll" to add to your blog or webpage. EXAMPLE ( LINK )
http://www.kma-clan.com/blog-roll.html

Other popular web-based Feed Readers

My Yahoo ( LINK )
Well registration was easy enough, but found the interface to be a little slow in IE. Visited the next day and cookies had already forgotten me. You dont really get a publicly share-able page either, can share only by email or IM, which is basically just a way to try and get your friends to sign up too. I suppose if you use yahoo services already it might be ok.... but otherwise not one of our favorites.

My AOL ( LINK )
Visited the next day and cookies had forgotten me, very similar to yahoo, with no publicly share-able page, you can share only by email or IM, which is basically just a way to try and get your friends to sign up too. I suppose if you use AOL services already it might be ok.... but otherwise don't bother.

My MSN ( LINK )
If you already have other msn services such as messenger you can use your same login. But that's about the only reason to use this service. Maybe others have had a better experience, but I found the MSN site to be very similar to their browser, incapable of processing the current version of many feeds. I'm sure MSN and Internet Explorer will catch up someday, but for now, use another service.

_{SOURCES - Six Apart - Wikipedia}