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News readers for technophobes
After reading the stats that over 90% of web users don't know about RSS, I figure a little education is in order. If you are one of the people who read this blog regularly but don't use an RSS "news reader," trust me when I say that it would make reading online a whole lot easier. This is especially true for sites like ours that update sporadically. A news reader will tell you when your favorite sites update and allow you to keep track of articles that you intend to read when time permits.
First, you'll need a news reader...
I use Bloglines,
so that's what I'll recommend. You'll need to register with Bloglines
first. Once you do, click "my feeds" and then "Add." Then, enter the
URL of a blog or news site you'd like to keep tabs on.
For example:
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org
http://www.visualresistance.org/wordpress/
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/iatrogenic/
Click SUBSCRIBE, check one of the "Subscribe to this feed" options, then hit SUBSCRIBE again. Our blog lists four different feeds but they are in fact all the same, so don't worry too much about which feed to subscribe to. Larger new sites, however, often give you options to subscribe to, say, sports or international news... so you should select those more carefully.
If, upon entering a URL, you get a message saying that no feed was found, visit the webite in question and look for an XML or RSS link (some websites don't have RSS). But, usually, if such a link appears on a web page you can just enter the URL of that web page and Bloglines will recognize the feed.
And you're done. Then, when you want to check what's going on, go to http://www.bloglines.com/myblogs and the updates you haven't read yet will be indicated in bold the left column.
Posted by carrie on 09/20/2005 | Permalink
Comments
If you're a Firefox user their is a newsreader extension called Sage: http://sage.mozdev.org/
Really easy to use... Install the extension, restart Firefox.. Browse the web, when you find a site with a feed that you want to subscribe to bookmark the feed link and now when you open Sage (loads in your sidebar) you'll see your subscribed feeds. I love it!
Posted by: chris | Sep 20, 2005 1:36:06 PM
I enjoy bloglines too, but it can become addictive. I recently got back from a trip and had some catching up to do: http://www.weblogsinc.com/common/images/8661123800156434.JPG
Posted by: Eliot Phillips | Sep 21, 2005 5:32:43 AM
this is a great tip! i set up bloglines easily and it's great for those of us that are use various computers. it's a great introduction to rss and syndication feeds as digging through the info piles on the internet!
Posted by: brenna wolf | Sep 23, 2005 2:48:01 PM
Don't foget about the Bookmarklet, which puts a button on your browser's toolbar. Then when you find a site that you like, click it to add it to your feed list!
PS: I've started a del.icio.us tag called subscribetowebsites to mark good descriptions of how to use a news reader to subscribe to information.
Posted by: mark | Oct 9, 2005 8:59:29 AM
