I'm just discovering them and I really enjoy using them. Anyone else use them to get news, info, etc? I've been using http://www.feedster.com/ to search for them. Pretty damn cool.
Yeah, I use the RSS feed from anandtech to checkout hardware prices. Also use the feed from theninhotline.com .
I use them all the time I wish this forum had RSS feeds for threads, I posted something about it in the Feedback section last year but I don't know if its supported Firefox also has a built in RSS reader type thing built-in
To explain it simply, web sites may make their content available in an RSS feed for you to insert into your own web page. Example, a sports site may prove an RSS feed of data/news and you can include that feed into your own web page. Now your own web page shows their feed of content. -- droxford
The reason the BBS probably can't have a feed is because it is still controlled by member-only status. It isn't just open to the general public creating some issues there. I've been talking to Clutch about at least doing the news from the front page in RSS. The Chron has feeds now, finally. I've added some into my personal sites and I track them that way. Cool stuff.
they'd be a great perk for contributing members, although i understand the implementation may be problematic.
so do you need your own website to get these? is this kinda the next wave of 'push' technology trumpeted awhile back by marimba et al?
you can use an RSS Program here are some free ones: http://www.sharpreader.net/ http://www.rssowl.org/ (open source) http://www.feedreader.com/ (open source)
Iron McFist basically said it, but the truth is that you can get a lot more in-depth information about very specific topics without having to search all over the place for it. It's like getting a newspaper every day with only the subject matter you want.
I tried them for a while, but gave up on them. At first I thought it was great, but I probably aded too many feeds to monitor and was overwhelmed by it. Maybe I should try again.
One thing I've been doing is just adding a few to a single web page where I can check the top X number of stories under that heading each day. That's a lot easier than loading up a feed reader with tons of stuff.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/3073440 RSS can smooth out waves for information surfing By DWIGHT SILVERMAN Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle As more people find themselves getting most of their news, information and even entertainment online, they're facing a problem. ADVERTISEMENT There's so much out there, how can a dedicated info junkie keep up? It's easy to chew up too much time surfing from site to site, trying to spot changes since the last visit. The answer is RSS, a way for sites to get content to users without their visiting the site. I described RSS in a recent column on podcasting (see www.chron.com/podcasting). The acronym stands for Real Simple Syndication. Although it's been around since the late 1990s, it has come into particular prominence in the last year with surging interest in Web logs, or blogs. Mainstream news sites, including the Houston Chronicle, which offers a dozen RSS feeds at www.chron.com/rssfeeds, have adopted RSS. You can even get this column and my new TechBlog via RSS. First, you'll need an RSS reader. There are lots available, many of them free, and for all kinds of computers. Adding feeds to a reader is easy. In most cases, you just right-click on the link to the feed (left-clicking on the link usually just shows you some very ugly code) and copy the link's location. Then, you paste it into the "Add a feed" component of the reader. The reader will periodically check the feed and signal you when there's something new. Here's a look at some of the best ones for Windows: • FIREFOX 1.01 — Free, Mozilla Foundation, www.mozilla.org/firefox. Most folks know Firefox as a Web browser, but it also has the built-in ability to read RSS feeds. Firefox refers to them as Live Bookmarks. Some sites that offer RSS feeds have tags in their pages that will alert you to them, and Firefox flags them with an icon at the bottom of the browser window. Click on the icon and you can quickly add the feed, which shows up as a folder in your bookmarks. If a site has RSS feeds but doesn't have the tag feature, you can manually add them. Firefox's ability to work with RSS feeds is limited, but if you already have the browser on your computer, it's a simple way to get started with them. You can get Firefox for Windows, Macintosh and Linux computers. • RSS READER 1.088 — Free, Ykoon B.V., www.rssreader.com. If you're looking for a stand-alone reader and are new to RSS, this is a good choice. Like many RSS readers, it uses a three-pane display that will look to a lot of Windows users like Outlook Express. Adding new feeds is simple, and, in fact, the program talks to a directory of hundreds of feeds that lets you add new ones simply by checking a box. You're alerted to new feeds by a popup that includes headlines and a pleasant doorbell chime. RSS Reader includes rudimentary filters that let you sort news items in feeds based on age, whether they're read or unread, and by keyword. The downside is that you must have Microsoft's .NET Framework 1.1 installed in order to use it. Most newer Windows XP machines come with this, but you can also download it via Windows Update. • SHARP READER 0.9.5.1 — Free, Luke Hutteman, www.sharpreader.net. Like RSS Reader, Sharp Reader requires the .NET framework. But it's got a few more features and is better suited to those who want a reader to do a little more. You can, for example, sort your feeds into categories, and you can then control how frequently each category is checked. You can even set a refresh rate based on the individual feed. Sharp Reader also alerts you with headlines in a pop-up format, though if you have a lot of feeds, your screen can quickly fill while you wait for the windows to fade. Unfortunately, Sharp Reader's filters are very basic and don't "stick" between sessions. Every time you relaunch the program, you'll have to set the filters the way you want them. • FEEDDEMON 1.5 — $30, Bradsoft, www.feeddemon.com. I've saved the best for last. FeedDemon is easily the slickest, most powerful reader I've tried, with features that come close to making it a killer app. FeedDemon calls feeds "channels," and collections of feeds are channel groups. You can customize the channels and groups almost any way you like. The program uses the same three-pane, vertical layout found in Outlook 2003, with channels appearing in the left pane, headlines and summaries in the center pane, and a viewing pane on the right that shows either individual items or a collection dubbed the newspaper view. This last feature is one of my favorites. It automatically creates a Web page with postings from a channel or a full channel group, allowing you to quickly scroll through the posts. You can choose a variety of layout styles. And for those who like browsers that use tabbed pages, FeedDemon's viewing pane will allow you to open new pages from sites in tabs rather than separate windows. FeedDemon will create a watch list based on keywords and filter posts that match into their own channel group. You can also save any given posting by adding it to the News Bin. Finally, FeedDemon integrates with several RSS news services, including NewsGator and Bloglines, and it has built-in support for podcasts. A trial version, which is free to use for 15 days, is available from the FeedDemon Web site. After you've tried it, I bet you'll be more than happy to pay for it. dwight.silverman@chron.com / www.dwightsilverman.com / www.chron.com/techblog Return to top
