What’s This RSS Thing?
While browsing this site, you may have seen an image that looks like this:
What is it?
I think it might be one of those weird Aztec symbols… Maybe for the Sun?
Well, no, not exactly. It’s the universal, ubiquitous sign for an RSS feed.
On (most) websites, there is a steady stream of content which is published. From blogs to Twitter and Facebook updates, and even comments on forums, many sites now have incoming content.
So an RSS feed is just all the new content that hits a site under certain conditions (e.g. comments, new blog posts, new updates, etc.).
What does this mean for me?
An RSS feed reader basically takes in all that new content and sends it to whoever may be subscribed to it. In other words, when you sign up for a feed under a reader, you can get email updates on the site’s new content, or even read it all on a completely separate site, such as Google, which provides a free service for all your subscriptions.
Many people regard this as one of the greatest time-saving developments of the 21st century.
How do I use it?
Well, it’s actually pretty simple. As far as this blog, simply click the text beside it which says, “Subscribe in a reader.” This will take you to the blog’s feed site at Feedburner.com. Then you will see an option to sign up for the feed with whichever service you’ve signed up for.
Another option is to, using Google Reader, sign in. You should see, on the left-hand side, an option to add a subscription. Assuming you’d like to sign up for the updated posts, simply type/paste in the URL: http://mnphoppal.com/blog/feed/
And you’re set! You should now be able to see all new updates on our blog.
