RSS Feeds

[homer]

What are these used for? I see the little icon on nearly every website I go to and now they are popping up in some work applications I use (i.e. Outlook, Lotus Notes).

[bjkrautk]

Really Simple Syndication (rss) feeds is one means to push an updating stream of information. Basically, they allow a "power user" to see the latest headlines on any website, subject, etc.

 

Most web portal sites (web pages that intend for you to use them as a homepage - excite and Yahoo being the two I use), allow you to add RSS feeds. As an example, my Yahoo page shows the 5 latest updates from the Rotoworld RSS feed for MLB news. Also, just about every podcast I know of uses an RSS feed. (iTunes podcast page looks for updates to the RSS feeds you've subscribed to when updating.)

 

Edit: One real reason to use RSS feeds would be for sites that put up new information on a non-steady basis (e.g., Penny Arcade). If you want to know if something new has been posted....it's faster to check the RSS than it would be to go to that particular website.

[Fatter than Joey]

yeah -- I use them a ton -- they rock.

 

It would be like if Dunkin' Doughnuts send you an email when fresh doughnuts were up.

[ajgodson]

I use RSS to read a ton of headlines without visiting sites. I read a lot of sports blogs and have a ton of them set up in Pageflakes, so I essentially can browse 30 websites at the same time....plenty handy.

[Team Canada]

Currently I have 160 feeds in bloglines. It's a complete paradigm shift - the information comes to you instead of you going to the information.

[endaround]

Did you really just say paradigm shift?

[sbrylski]

Where do you view these feeds from? Your browser?

[Team Canada]

Firefox and Opera integrate feeds into the browser, Outlook can handle RSS now, there are 3rd party Readers (i.e. separate applications), or there are websites that do it, e.g. bloglines, google reader, etc.

[Fatter than Joey]

 

I use Feedreader.

[homer]

IE7 handles feeds. That's what piqued my interest. There is a 'favorites' for websites and in that same window was a section for RSS feeds. I've subscribed to a couple (including Brewerfan) to see what it's all about.

[JET15]

I use My Yahoo for RSS feeds on a half dozen pages. I now hate sites that don't do RSS and frequently hammer them until they add them... or I just end up stop visiting them.

 

My favorite use is for Craigslist and EBay. Say you're thinking about watching for something to come up for sale on Craigslist and EBay but it's tedious visiting everyday and entering the same old searches. Just do the searches once and then click on the link to add the RSS feed to your page. Now it only shows up when there's a hit... beeeeeautiful