Web tools: RSS & RSS Readers

There are so many new tools available on the web these days that it is hard to keep track of them, let alone to figure out what problem they actually solve for you. One example of such a tool is RSS or Really Simple Syndication. I just posted a video on my 123Hints.com web site & podcast that explains RSS and how to use a tool like Google Reader to take advantage of RSS.

RSS has been around for several years but is still catching on. While there are many applications for the technology, on example that resonates with most people is keeping up with news & blogs. Traditionally, if you wanted to check out the headlines at The New York Times, CNN and your favorite wine blog Wine Library TV you had to actually go a visit each of those sites. In some case you were able to aggregate content on your My Yahoo page, but generally the only way that you could check all headlines and news that you wanted was to visit each site. This process is generally a waste of time since visiting a site may or may not result in finding new postings. While big media outlets might update headlines several times a day, some smaller (but equally interesting sites) might update more sporadically. RSS and an RSS reader solves that problem.

RSS is a standardized way that web sites can share (or syndicate) information. With this standard in place, RSS readers can take over the job of checking for new postings/articles and aggregate the information in a single place making the checking of your favorite sites a simpler process that is more analogous to checking email.

How does Matt use RSS?

I am an unapologetic geek, businessman, wine enthusiast, and life long learner. These eclectic interests can’t be covered by a publication or two – instead I have 50 sources of information that I read on a regular basis. Some of these sources are major media outlets (WSJ, NYT) others are industry focused (Engadget, AppleInsider) and still others are the occasionally updated ramblings of friends or other persons of interest (Guy Kawasaki’s “How To Change The World“). Keeping up with all these sites without RSS would be impractical. Now, each morning I can pull up my favorite RSS reader and access all these sources! While there are some great computer based RSS readers, I opt for Google Reader so that I can have my most recent reading history available on my iPhone or computer. Thanks to the magic of RSS I can read a specific feed, a group of related feeds, the most recent posts, or only the new posts.

There are some more geeky things that I do with RSS as well. Since it is merely a way to syndicate information, I created custom RSS feeds that let me monitor Twitter for key words related to my podcast and brand identity on the web and that is one of hundreds of different uses people are finding for RSS.

Like other tools, RSS can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you choose to use it. If you follow too many feeds or there are too many updates to keep up with, it can be the source of stress like an overflowing inbox. On the other hand, it can be a great way to keep up with things that matter to you and always ensure that you have personally relevant reading material handy next time you are waiting at the DMV or riding public transportation.

Some thoughts on tools

As I highlight in my video, a great web based reader is Google Reader – it is free and has the benefit of being available anywhere you have an Internet connection. On the Mac an application based RSS reader is built into Apple Mail. NewsGator makes some great application based readers for the Mac and Windows machines.