The bold news items are those I haven’t read yet.Ĭurrently, my Google Reader contains 161 subscriptions. If I click on a folder name – such as “InterVarsity” – I see only the news feeds from that folder. On the left are my folders, which I use to organize my RSS feeds. I can also expand one news item to read it, or click Expanded to expand all the news items. The primary (right) column contains my most recent updates. Let me explain the different parts of the screen. Here’s a screen shot of my Google Reader. Never heard of it? Well, if you have a Google account, then you have Google Reader. Since this is an intro article, I’ll just discuss one of the more popular RSS readers: Google Reader. You need an RSS reader, sometimes called an “aggregator.” There are dozens of web-based, desktop-based, and even phone-based readers available, often for free. For example, do you love David Brooks but don’t care for any other NY Times writers? Subscribe to the NY Times’ feed for David Brooks’ columns, and get only the content you want to read. Your RSS reader will collect all updates for you – and you’re free to check your RSS reader as often (or as infrequently) as you want.Īttention: With all of your favorite content in one place, you can organize it based on your reading preferences, collect it into folders, skim the headlines and skip the articles you don’t care about, or even subscribe to specialty RSS feeds based on your interests. Time: Rather than manually check each of your favorite websites to see if they have new content, your RSS reader will collect the latest content automatically from your favorite feeds. RSS feeds are better because of time and attention. Why is RSS better than just visiting the website? Think of it as a “Facebook stream” from a single blog or website. A website’s RSS feed will contain some basic content from each article it publishes – title, time, date – along with either a summary or even the whole article. RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication.” It’s a way for websites to “syndicate” their content for use by other websites and software, just like a syndicated newspaper column published in hundreds of newspapers at the same time. Using an RSS reader and some basic information management skills, you can easily keep up with dozens of news sources and blogs each day. My secret (other than being easily distracted) is my trusty RSS reader. Sometimes people ask me how I keep up with so many blogs, websites, and general news. An earlier version of this article originally appeared on my personal blog.
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